Posted by Joshua on Friday, December 28th, 2012

A friend on Alawites:

I remain skeptical regarding the Alawite community’s plan B. in my view there is no plan A, no plan B and no plan C. to make things worse there is no Alawite community. the original community’s communal structures, its forms of leadership, its elites, its identity, its religion and its rapport to its own territory have all been gutted, to a large extent, by the regime. This explains in part why Alawites both loath Bashar and desperately cling to him. they have nowhere to go, no alternative, no ability to organize enough to produce one of their own. They are confused by their absorption into a state that has proved to be a fiction. they are offered no exit by an opposition of eradicators who whisper nice words and think murder. I believe — and was just in Damascus — that the regime will go down fighting, in the capital, which it will destroy in the process. that doesn’t preclude other struggles in other places, such as Latakia. of course, and as always, I hope I’m wrong.

Two Syrian Air Force generals, five colonels, two majors, two captains, four lieutenants, three major sergeants and their families entered into Turkey at the border village of Bükülmez in Hatay’s Reyhanlı district. With the latest defections, the total number of defected Syrian generals Turkey is housing has risen to 49. – Zaman

Regime warplanes have carried out four attacks on Darya, rural Damascus, 28-12-2012 so far today, dropping missiles and cluster bombs on residential areas near the town centre. At least one martyr, a youth named as Tariq Mahmoud, has been confirmed killed in the brutal aerial bombardment. Moadamiyeh, Damascus, 28-12-2012: Moadamiyeh is under bombardment by MiG warplanes in conjunction with heavy artillery shelling by the regime’s notorious Fourth Division.

…. “The greatest challenge facing the rebels is providing the basic necessities of life to Syrians living in areas no longer controlled by the state,” says Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma. “That’s why the regime is trying its best to disrupt food supplies in rebel-held areas. It needs them to fail, even to starve while they’re living under rebel control. The regime can’t allow the rebels to establish a workable alternative that pays salaries and is able to provide for those in its domain in the way that the state currently serves as the key provider to many millions of Syrians.”….

Syrians carry a desk out of a school in the Saif al-Dawla district of Aleppo. Photograph: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

It wasn’t the government that killed the Syrian rebel commander Abu Jameel. It was the fight for his loot. The motive for his murder lay in a great warehouse in Aleppo which his unit had captured a week before. The building had been full of rolled steel, which was seized by the fighters as spoils of war.

But squabbling developed over who would take the greater share of the loot and a feud developed between commanders. Threats and counter-threats ensued over the following days.

Abu Jameel survived one assassination attempt when his car was fired on. A few days later his enemies attacked again, and this time they were successful. His bullet-riddled body was found, handcuffed, in an alley in the town of al-Bab.

Captain Hussam, of the Aleppo military council, said: “If he had died fighting I would say it was fine, he was a rebel and a mujahid and this is what he had set out to do. But to be killed because of a feud over loot is a disaster for the revolution.

“It is extremely sad. There is not one government institution or warehouse left standing in Aleppo. Everything has been looted. Everything is gone.”

Captured government vehicles and weapons have been crucial to the rebels since the start of the conflict, but according to Hussam and other commanders, and fighters interviewed by the Guardian over a fortnight in northern Syria, a new phase has been reached in the war. Looting has become a way of life.

“Spoils” have now become the main drive for many units as battalion commanders seek to increase their power.

The problem is particularly pronounced in Aleppo, according to Abu Ismael, a young lieutenant from a wealthy family, who ran a successful business before joining the fight against Bashar al-Assad.

Many of the battalions that entered the city in the summer of this year came from the countryside, he said. They were poor peasants who carried with them centuries-old grudges towards the wealthier Aleppans….

Samira Selo cradled her 2-year-old on her hip and looked across the low valley toward Syria, a country that until a month ago she called home. Some sheep and goats grazed nearby. Behind her, in the old tiny tent she, her husband and three kids call home, her family’s possessions were rolled up under two thin mattresses still damp from a week’s worth of rain. The floor of her tent was mud, the same mud that formed, often knee-deep, every lane zigzagging through the Domiz refugee camp in the north of Iraqi Kurdistan……

Thus far, the Syrian Kurds have remained somewhat neutral in the civil war ravaging Syria. Some splinter groups seem to be supporting Assad, and others the opposition, but for the most part, the Kurds have sat out the fight. “As far as the Syrian Kurds are concerned, the opposition is as bad as the regime,” Talabani says. Until the opposition pledges to respect Kurdish rights and grant them full representation in the new government, the Kurds will remain wary.

In fact, the refugees are suspicious of anything and everything except the Kurdish government in Iraq. Kurdish flags fly from dozens of tents. “I won’t fight for Assad or against Assad,” says Shanki, “but I will lay down my life for Kurdistan.” The group of men surrounding him all murmur — and some shout — in agreement.

C.J. Chivers reports:…. has also left rebels vulnerable to allegations of corruption, including the theft of much needed food and other aid.

Simultaneously, the fighting has exposed the government’s seemingly fatal miscalculations. For all of its statements to the contrary, and no matter its effort to mass soldiers and firepower here, Mr. Assad’s government has mustered neither the popular support nor the military might to stop the rebels’ slow momentum, much less to defeat them.

These days rumors circulate of Mr. Assad’s dilemma — will he flee Damascus, Syria’s capital, or die behind the palace gate? — while it is rebels who speak with confidence.

“Now we are making very good progress,” said Col. Abdul Jabbar al-Okaidi, a former Syrian military officer who is now one of the senior rebel commanders in the Aleppo region. “Almost all of the military bases and regime forces in Aleppo have been surrounded.”

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity, an opposition Alawite religious cleric who recently fled to the Turkish town of Antakya revealed that “the Alawite community is living in a state of great fear, after we have become aware that the collapse of the al-Assad regime is imminent, which will […]

Taking Syria back from the extremists
By Mohammed Alaa Ghanem, Thursday, December 27 – Wash Post
Mohammed Alaa Ghanem is senior political adviser, strategist and government relations director for the Syrian American Council in Washington.

The U.S. commitment to aiding the Syrian opposition against the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad has been one of many words and few deeds. Repeated pledges of support absent material assistance have allowed fringe elements to establish themselves in northern Syria. If this trend persists, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s warning of “efforts by extremists to hijack the Syrian revolution” will soon become reality.

During a recent three-week trip to the Middle East, I observed both encouraging and disturbing developments. I went into Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and industrial capital, to see how Syrians were coping with chaos. About 75 percent of Aleppo is under opposition control.

I expected to talk to average people overwhelmed with trying to restore order. Instead, I encountered a sophisticated civilian governance structure. The Aleppo Transitional Revolutionary Council, run by a 23-member board of university-educated professionals, has emerged in the liberated areas. To restore critical services to the heavily damaged city, the council has formed 12 committees covering law enforcement, education, bakeries, relief efforts and more. The medical council alone was running eight hospitals. (Shelling by the Assad regime leveled one of those hospitals last month.)

The people I met with impressed me with their professionalism and they way they emphasized the “interim” before their titles. All said they plan to abide by election results once peace is restored to the city.

A few months ago, the majority of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) elements in Aleppo coalesced into the Revolutionary Military Council under the disciplined leadership of Col. Abduljabar Ekeidi. They have shockingly few resources: Because of protocols governing how supplies can enter Syria, the council is able to scrape together enough ammunition for a day’s fighting about every two weeks. Forces loosely affiliated with the FSA make up about 80 percent of the armed groups in the city; the others are undisciplined or hard-line organizations or criminal groups taking advantage of the violence.

Civilian efforts to provide governance and medical care and bring lawless and extremist elements to heel have been hamstrung by lack of resources. Brig. Gen. Adib al-Shallaf, a defector from Syrian security forces, has plans to reestablish a civilian police force for Aleppo. But some weeks he is not able to regularly feed his recruits, much less buy them uniforms. He told me he was not sure how long his effort could survive.

Halab al-Shabaa Brigade, one of the larger FSA units under the military council in Aleppo, is considering disbanding. The unit commander, a moderate, told me he knew that the extremist militant group Jabhat al-Nusra had approached some of his men. Jabhat al-Nusra is well-financed: Many of its cells have more food and weapons than recruits, and they are approaching Syrians to expand. Their obvious advantage is that they can provide what more moderate groups and civilian councils cannot: salaries and weapons.

I was shocked when a liberal commander of a brigade from al-Hasakah, a province in northeastern Syria, told me that he was considering joining Jabhat al-Nusra. His view of why he had “no option” was strategic: “I’m struggling with funding, and if the deal comes through me, I’ll maintain influence over the 20-year-olds fighting in my brigade, most of whom are not terribly educated. If the frustration grows, they will leave me, and they might end up with Jabhat al-Nusra, at which point they might embrace their ideology.”

Since I visited Aleppo, the United States has designated Jabhat al-Nusra a terrorist organization and an affiliate of al-Qaeda in Iraq. While Jabhat al-Nusra leaders undoubtedly profess an ideology similar to al-Qaeda’s, Syria experts agree that the timing of the designation has been disastrous for mainstream Syrians’ perception of the United States. First, Jabhat al-Nusra has helped on the ground in ways Washington has not: The group cooperates closely with the Free Syrian Army; it has achieved military successes and has delivered critical civilian aid. Second, the U.S. designation failed to distinguish between Jabhat al-Nusra’s core of hard-line ideologues and Syrians who join because Jabhat al-Nusra has money, weapons and proven military successes.

When leaving Aleppo, I had an experience that underscores the problem. Our group encountered members of Jabhat al-Nusra at a roadblock. Their respectful treatment and their short beards caught me off-guard. I initiated a conversation with the men manning the checkpoint. They were local people from a village about half a mile away. They joined Jabhat al-Nusra, they told me, because the group has the weapons and supplies necessary to protect their families. One man even expressed sympathy for the Alawite minority, Assad’s sect, and referred to Alawites as his brothers. “We only have a problem with the Assad regime,” he said. These men clearly did not support Jabhat al-Nusra’s extremist ideology, but they see the organization as their only option.

Groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra have been allowed to establish not just a presence but also a foothold. If the civilian councils and other governance structures emerging in the liberated regions can be sufficiently funded, they can provide policing and relief services to stabilize their communities. But without support from the United States and other allies, well-funded extremist groups can continue to recruit fighters from a population that would otherwise ignore them.

As winter sets in, the Syrian people will be in desperate need. The United States must do all it can to bolster the legitimacy of civilian councils and other moderate organizations, including delivering aid through the coalition and regional councils rather than third-party nongovernmental organizations. This would help enable civilians to run their communities and increase the likelihood that a post-Assad Syria will become an inclusive democracy, rather than a failed state.

Read more from Opinions: Jackson Diehl: A jihadist group prospers in Syria The Post’s View: Syria’s war spills into Lebanon David Ignatius: A defector’s account of Syrian chemical weapons

An increasing number of reports indicate that armed anti-regime brigades are surrounding the city of Raqqa in northeast Syria with the plan to enter it. There have already been some attacks on the outskirts of the city. Raqqa is among the few relatively safe areas in Syria that civilians can still to escape to. As a result, the city is now heavily, densely populated hosting nearly three million people more than half of whom are internally displaced living in very dire conditions.

Pushing the city into armed conflict will result in a tragedy to add to the countless tragedies the Syrians are already suffering. It is even more tragic considering that the city will probably not play any strategic role in settling the conflict in Syria.

The location of Raqqa near Tabaqa military airport, which is under the control of the regime, ensures that the city will be under immediate threat of aerial bombardment by regime

Abu Adnan, a 35-year-old religious scholar and Shari’a law official in Jabhat al-Nusra’s leadership in the Aleppo area, gave an interview with Rania Abouzeid for Time magazine.

The interview took place in a town in northern Syria, in the countryside outside Aleppo. I was not blindfolded nor subjected to a physical security check. I was picked up at a northern Syria border post, driven for about 15 minutes inside the country before the vehicle stopped in front of a black pickup truck waiting in the middle of an otherwise empty stretch of road. There were three men in the vehicle, including Abu Adnan, who silently approached the car I was in, and sat in the backseat. He did not introduce himself until I asked who he was later.

We drove to a small cold concrete room with a tiny window that barely let in any light from an already overcast sky. We sat among boxes of long-life milk and bags of blankets and winter clothes waiting to be distributed. Our host, the driver, tried to start a portable gas heater, but there was no gas.

“America has called us terrorists because it says that some of our tactics bear the fingerprints of al-Qaeda in Iraq, like our explosives and the car bombs,” Abu Adnan said, his breath condensing as he spoke. “We are not like al-Qaeda in Iraq, we are not of them.”

Jabhat al-Nusra does count Syrian veterans of the Iraq war among its numbers, men who bring expertise — especially the manufacture of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) — to the front in Syria. Still, Jabhat al-Nusra is not the only rebel outfit to use IEDs and other groups — some so-called moderates operating under the loose umbrella of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have also allegedly used suicide bombers who were either willing or unwilling (i.e prisoners). Like Jabhat al-Nusra, a number of other Islamist groups also want to install an Islamic state in Syria, while even secular rebel units increasingly speak in ugly sectarian terms that demonize minorities, particularly members of Assad’s Alawite sect. Yet only Jabhat al-Nusra’s tactics were designated as “terrorist” by a U.S. administration that admits it is still trying to understand the various armed elements in the Syrian conflict, fueling all manner of theories about why Jabhat al-Nusra was slapped with the description. Also why time the announcement just as rebels as a whole seem to have gained a renewed momentum? The key, it seems, is the alleged links to al-Qaeda in Iraq….

He said that if anything, Jabhat al-Nusra was keeping itself in check. “Many of the people who are wanted by us, who we have scores to settle with, very important people are present in Turkey, in areas close to the border, we can easily reach them. It would be very easy for us, but we won’t do this and yet they still call us terrorists. We are fighting in Syria, and who are we fighting? The security forces, the shabiha [proregime thugs also listed as terrorists by the U.S.] and those who help the regime.”

At the same time as announcing plans for an Islamic state in Aleppo, Jabhat al-Nusra has begun undertaking relief efforts in the neighborhoods of the city it is based in, seeking a stronger foothold in the local community, even though paradoxically like many rebel groups operating in Aleppo, its fighters are largely not from the city. It has distributed much needed supplies of petrol, diesel, and flour to bakeries. “We are keeping the price of bread at 15 lira [about 21 U.S. cents], which was its true price,” Abu Adnan said, adding that transgressors would be punished according to Shari‘a. (Jabhat al-Nusra has also thus far avoided indiscriminate civilian casualties.)

That’s not to say that Jabhat al-Nusra does not have fierce critics, especially within rebel circles. In addition to its civilian detractors, many more secular-minded fighters are wary of the group’s social conservatism, but insist that its brand of ultraconservative Islam will not find a home in any post-Assad Syria. These fighters often say that they will “deal” with conservative groups like Jabhat al-Nusra later, but that right now they need them in the fight against Assad. Other rebels view Jabhat al-Nusra as a transient jihadi group that will move onto foreign fronts like Afghanistan or Gaza after the fall of Assad.

Abu Adnan smirked when asked to comment about such sentiments, especially by fellow Sunni fighters, whom he dismissed as “the brainwashed.” He repeated that “the idea that we are a global organization or that we have some other goal elsewhere after the fall is not true.” He was emphatic: “We are Syrians.” He admitted that “we also have foreigners who came from other countries, but,” he explained, “that is because the wounds in the Arab lands are the same wound, and the oppression is the same oppression.”

Planning for post-Assad transition has become a race against time that proponents of a democratic Syria fear they are losing. …

“Even secular-minded people who acknowledge the jihadis are a potential threat to them say they’re the only people who helped us and you didn’t help us,” said Malinowski, who returned last week from rebel-held areas of Syria. “There is not much time left to demonstrate to Syrians that the United States was with them when they needed it most.”

U.S. officials say they recognize the urgency of the situation, as rebel military forces increase their hold on Syrian territory amid escalating civilian deaths and mounting humanitarian needs. “But there are legal issues involved” in moving beyond humanitarian aid, a senior administration official said.

Providing the rebel military with the same kind of organizational and training aid being given outside Syria to the political opposition is just as illegal as handing over weapons or sending troops, U.S. officials said.

Without an international mandate from the United Nations or approval from Congress, the United States has no basis on which to aid or interact with the Syrian rebels, under the legal opinion on which the administration has based its policy….

“If we speculate that the regime collapses soon, we have to recognize that we would see a period of fairly intense political competition in which actors on the ground who had established credibility would have a significant advantage” over anyone or anything coming from the outside, Heydemann said. “Military commanders in many cases would assert their authority, at least temporarily.”

“Ultimately, I think, this work has to be understood as an effort to avoid worst-case scenarios, not as an effort to develop ideal structures that will permit Syria to transition immediately and seamlessly into a popular parliamentary democracy. I don’t think anyone envisions that.”

‘This is going to be messy’

What worries Rami Nakhla and others is that the hands-off approach adopted by the United States and its European allies may be ensuring the chaotic outcome they say they seek to avoid. Nakhla’s own apocalyptic prediction is that powerful armed elements, including extremists, will look for a new enemy to retain their power after vanquishing Assad and will settle on neighboring Israel. The West will inevitably oppose them, and “the Syrian people will start to view the international community as their enemy,” Nakhla said in a telephone interview from Turkey. A Damascus university student who slipped out of Syria just as the uprising began in early 2011, he spent months hiding from Syrian intelligence in Beirut while disseminating video and updates from protesters inside Syria to the outside world on the Internet….

Recruited to work on USIP’s project, he is now in Istanbul to set up the independent Day After organization to provide technical assistance to the coalition.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — President Bashar al-Assad of Syria sits in his mountaintop palace as the tide of war licks at the cliffs below.

Explosions bloom over the Damascus suburbs. His country is plunging deeper into chaos. The United Nations’ top envoy for the Syrian crisis, Lakhdar Brahimi, met with Mr. Assad in the palace on Monday in an urgent effort to resolve the nearly two-year-old conflict.

How Mr. Assad might respond to Mr. Brahimi’s entreaty depends on his psychology, shaped by a strong sense of mission inherited from his iron-fisted father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad; his closest advisers, whom supporters describe as a hard-line politburo of his father’s gray-haired security men; and Mr. Assad’s assessment, known only to himself, about what awaits him if he stays — victory, or death at the hands of his people…..

Dr. Nikolaos van Dam, the Netherlands’ former ambassador to Iraq, tells Rudaw (listen) that in order to avoid conflict and bloodshed it is better for Iraq’s Kurdistan Region to remain “de facto independent” than to fully claim it. Author of The Struggle for Power in Syria, van Dam believes that, whatever the outcome of the conflict in Syria, the country’s Kurdish population need not fear renewed persecution on ethnic grounds, as in the past. Here is his interview:

The commander of Syria’s military police has defected from President Bashar-al Assad’s government and reportedly fled to Turkey. Lt Gen Abulaziz al-Shalal is one of the highest-ranking officials to join the uprising against the Syrian regime. The army had failed to protect Syrians and turned into “gangs of murder”, the general said […]

To my ex-cousin!
Before you read my letter, bring your children to you!
Look at the eyes of your son! You see, in his eyes, like a child make a shoe from the cold ground? You see the second child as happily smiling caring a bread, like it was a treasure. You see, the third child, as it smiles despite its amputated legs? You see, the fourth child sitting crying beside his dead mother and waits until she is awake so that they be comforted? I’m sure that you’ve seen nothing. Because you see only his blue eyes, which he inherited from his father. Touch the head of your daughter! Is he still there? What a feeling you had when the body of your daughter would be without a head? You jus thave to imagine all this, then answer me! Looking after your children if they had their normal breakfast, or would you then feel helpless when you cant offer them any food, not even a bite? Have you heard yesterday from the massacre of Halfaja? I think not, because you were probably busy with the Christmas party. I forgot to tell you, O daughter Az’zu’wat that my beloved Homs is destroyed. Yes, it’s true. But that does not interest you. It connects you nothing with Homs. On its sidewalks you have not painted nor have you played with the other kids there. You did not bring the neighbors food.Not even in your early years of adolescence have you walked on the streets. And no boy has turned on you to satisfy your arrogance.

You have not experienced the first love story there. And you have not visited the bazaar whose scents remind you of the people a thousand years ago.
Everything has been destroyed.
Did you get the message, that the Homsis have become either refugees, displaced or dead people ? Oh! I’m stupid. I forgot that you do not like bad news. For your sensitive heart can not take it. And now an end to the formal Arab language! I’ll want to write a few sentences in our language. Our revolution will triumph. You have to know that before God and us, you are also responsible for what happened in our country. God will take revenge on you and on every criminal. Believe me! I will not be sad about it. For thy blood shed does not interest me. If I had the opportunity to change my blood,I would do it.

Wonder how long before the rats bring their revolution to the peaceful Druze communities? They will no doubt be punished, like Aleppo, for not supporting the Salafist apes’ plan to destroy the entire nation.

AlArabiyeh mentioned 2500 Sunni officer are im Saydnaya prison, and that the TV building has been turned to military base full of Shabbiha,
Mr. Landis friend said
” I believe that the regime will go down fighting, in the capital, which it will destroy in the process”
I sure hope he is wrong.If not Syria population will be one million less.the Assad thugs will sentense themselves to death.
As for the rebels are getting weaker, it is due to the weather,in the spring they will get much stronger specially by then several military centers will be taken by FSA

MAJEDKHALDOUN I guess you don’t bother to read the stories Josh Landis posts but if you read them above you can see what the FSA does in Aleppo. Stealing. Looting. Killing each other. Killing civilians. The FSA is hated there.

TARA thanks – that’s sweet – same to you. I love your posts and am amused and delighted you find me so entertaining. Maybe in another world we would have been husband and wife.

The Asma cousin story reminds me of Danny Dayem or the other media freak shows and circuses except this one won’t get any play outside of a few bearded apes. Maybe you should take it to Anderson Cooper.

The most interesting parts are the news of Mikdad going to Moscow to ask for pressure on the initiative of Lakhdar which as I said before is giving Athad a symbolic role until 2014 as the best offer on the table. It is also interesting that Russia wants to talk to the opposition.

This means the following:
1. The US and EU are letting Russia find a way out and preserve some presence in the ME.
2. The Russians have concluded that that regime is not going to win, and maybe on the losing side.
3. The regime wants to take the Russians hostage to its survival by threatening a destruction of the country and certainly Damascus.
4. The regime now has only troops that are sure that if they lose they will die.
5. If Russia cannot pull this off then the rebels will receive more support to finish the job.

Now some other interesting news
Iran is willing to open its military facility for inspection if the threat of an attack recedes.

Iran sanctions on the first of the year are going to become more stringent.

The GCC despite the fact that these are clans with flags have enough of military hardware to participate in an attack on Iran if it ever materializes, although I think it will not.

Iran and the US are talking behind the scenes. Turkey is a part and parcel of these talks and the Kurds have just gotten a breathing space with the turmoil in Iraq.

Sunnis in Iraq are smelling blood, and if Maliki does not deliver, there will be a restart of the civil war there. Once the regime in Syria falls the Iraqis will have no support and will have to deal with the Kurds and the Sunnis.

So in all of this dance and dog and pony show the two players that are working to limit the damage of the their policies are the Russians and the Iranians and the former are in a better position than the latter for once Russia gets some quid pro quo in Syria, it will leave Iran to face the music alone.

On the other hand, Russia may sacrifice Syria for a closer relation to Iran for the last thing that Russia wants are pipelines that are not under its control.

Did small Qatar beat the bear at its game?

Now let us see how the community of supporters within the sect is going to turn against the Makhloof Athad mafia consortium.

“As for the rebels are getting weaker, it is due to the weather,in the spring they will get much stronger”

Oh, so they did not get the non-lethal influenza vaccine?

It’s a good news that we have to wait for the spring to see the rebels recovering. In the meantime the Syrian army will take a break
Maybe the rebels will find themselves recovering in Turkey’s high-tech camps together with their family.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said several rebel groups pounded Wadi Deif amid violent clashes on the ground while regime warplanes launched air strikes around the army base. Two rebel fighters were killed, the Britain-based Observatory said. Rebels on the ground said the jihadist group the Al-Nusra Front was leading the offensive.
…
Elsewhere, Al-Nusra and rebel fighters attacked regime troops guarding Aleppo airport, the Observatory reported, as clashes shook several neighbourhoods in the city, including around a military compound besieged by rebels.

You can read about the many defections on Landis’ blog, the very blog that you’re commenting on. But apparently you don’t read it because you don’t trust it, so whatever. As I’ve said before, there is no negotiations. The two sides can’t even agree on the same facts. It will be settled on the battlefields.

@ Zoo

Al Nusra is better than the regime. The “secular” West won’t help the FSA against the evil regime. So they turn to the jihadists for support. What is wrong with that?

So I guess you don’t accept any of the major international newspapers, websites, or news feeds, all of which mentioned defections from Assad’s regime. And obviously you don’t read Landis’ blog, which makes me wonder why you’re here in the first place, unless it is to troll.

And I don’t accept any of your sources.

So what is there to discuss? We’ll see how the war turns out and see which side wins.

Dubai, Asharq Al-Awsat – Has he defected or been sacked? Is he in hiding or has he been kidnapped? Nothing is certain, but what is clear is that former Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi suddenly disappeared, under mysterious circumstances, and nothing has been seen or heard from him in more than one month.

Both Britain and Washington have denied knowing Makdissi’s whereabouts, whilst rumors about Makdissi’s fate abound in Lebanon. As for the al-Assad regime, it has remained silent, insisting that Makdissi is on “administrative leave”. So what is the fate of Jihad Makdissi? Asharq Al-Awsat has obtained important details regarding Makdissi’s movements over his final days and weeks in Syria prior to his disappearance.
,,,
For its part, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper claimed that “Makdissi is co-operation with US intelligence officials who helped him flee to Washington almost one month ago” adding “this has now been confirmed”. The report claimed that Makdissi has undergone “almost a month of debriefings, which have helped intelligence officials build a picture of decision-making in the inner sanctum of the embattled regime.”
….
However the talk that he is on leave – according to newspapers affiliated to the Syrian government – indicates beyond reasonable doubt that he is in the hands of the regime or one of its allies in Lebanon.”

Intact, in the sense that the SAA poses no threat to Israel. In that sense, you are correct. So it’s business as usual, eh, Revie? For more than 40 years under the Assads, the SAA was “intact” and it still is.

I wondered about you, coming out of nowhere and suddenly making your presence felt filling SC with rants and opinions and insults and I wondered who sent you because turds like you don’t happen by accident. You’re not an accidental turd. No sirree. You’re a Mossad turd.

Welcome to LandisLand, Revenire from Mossad…or shall we just call you Mossie?…

RT: It took both of you almost five years to produce this series. And in it you have a chapter called Obama: Management of a Wounded Empire. You give a harsh critique of the Obama administration. What in your eyes has been the most troubling aspect of his presidency, Oliver?

Oliver Stone: I think under the disguise of sheep’s clothing he has been a wolf. That because of the nightmare of the Bush presidency that preceded him, people forgave him a lot. He was a great hope for change. The color of his skin, the upbringing, the internationalism, the globalism, seemed all evident. And he is an intelligent man. He has taken all the Bush changes he basically put them into the establishment, he has codified them. That is what is sad. So we are going into the second administration that is living outside the law and does not respect the law and foundations of our system and he is a constitutional lawyer, you know. Without the law, it is the law of the jungle. Nuremburg existed for a reason and there was a reason to have trials, there is a reason for due process – ‘habeas corpus’ as they call it in the United States.

RT: Do you agree Peter?

Peter Kuznick: I agree, if you look at his domestic policy, he did not break with the Bush administration’s policies. If you look at his transparency – he claimed to be the transparency president when he was running for office. There has not been transparency. We have been actually classifying more documents under Obama than we did under Bush. All previous presidents between 1970 and 2008 indicted three people total under Espionage Act. Obama has already indicted six people under the Espionage Act. The surveillance has not stopped, the incarceration without bringing people to trial has not stopped. So those policies have continued.

Then there are war policies, militarization policies. We are maintaining that. We are fighting wars now in Yemen, Afghanistan, we are keeping troops in Afghanistan. We have not cut back the things that we all found so odious about the Bush administration and Obama added some of his own. The drones policy – Obama had more drone attack in the first eight months than Bush had his entire presidency. And these have very dubious international legality.

OS: Peter was hopeful that the in the second term there will be some more flexibility, we hope so. But, there is a system in place, which is enormous – the Pentagon system.

I’ve heard the trash talk from apes allied to Israel about how Syria is no threat to Israel but we all know the 2006 Hezbollah victory over the Israeli was made possible by Syrian and Iranian support as in MISSILES – 1000s of MISSILES.

Syria is one of Israel’s principal immediate military threats. Syria’s primary military objective has been the destruction of Israel, but since it has been defeated on the battlefield by the IDF in every major military engagement since 1948, in the last decade the country has turned to a new strategy: sponsor and assist terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah while also developing offensive, ballistice missile systems and proliferating weapons of mass destruction.

Since 2008, Syria has spent more than $3 billion on weapons procurement and development, up from less than $100 million in 2002. Syria also reportedly received $1 billion from Iran in 2007/8 to buy surface-to-surface missiles, rockets, anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft systems. “Iran and Syria share the same viewpoint regarding regional issues and efforts will be made to strengthen our shared interests and bilateral relations,” said Hassan Turkmani, Syrian Defense Minister, who was dispatched to Tehran after Iranian officials condemned the resumption of negotiations with Israel in 2008.

Israel is particularly concerned with a Syrian request from Russia for long-range S-300 surface-to-air missiles that could threaten IAF jets flying on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights. Syria also reportedly wants MiG 29 fighter jets and the Iskander surface-to-surface missile system, which is a longer range and more accurate missile than the ballistic missiles currently in Syria’s arsenal. The Syrian navy is apparently also looking to purchase two Amur-1650 submarines from Russia. The dramatic increase in military spending and effort to significantly upgrade its military capability keeps Syria as a major threat to Israel.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Though it is party to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Syria was engaged in a covert nuclear program for more than a decade. On September 6, 2007, Israel bombed a site in northern Syria that was later revealed by the CIA as a plutonium reactor being built with the help of North Korea. The possibility that the site was related to a nuclear program was supported by the U.S. intelligence community which released reports that said the covert Pakistani supplier group headed by A.Q. Khan “offered nuclear technology and hardware to Syria.” In February 2009, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that samples taken from the site revealed traces of processed uranium.

Syria denied the site was for a nuclear facility but IAEA investigators were given very restricted access to the area and the Syrian government quickly destroyed any evidence that remained. Nevertheless, a report was issued on November 19, 2008, which said the IAEA found a “significant number” of uranium particles and concluded, “While it cannot be excluded that the building in question was intended for non-nuclear use, the features of the building…are similar to what may be found in connection with a reactor site.”

In February 2011, commercial satellite photos published by Washington’s Institute for Science and International Security identified another suspect nuclear installation in Syria. The photos provided evidence that Damascus may have been pursing atomic weapons prior to the 2007 Israeli strike and increased pressure for demands for a new round of expansive inspections of suspect Syrian facilities. Another IAEA report issued in May 2011, which cited both physical and photograhic evidence, confirmed that the Syrian project destroyed in the the Israeli air raid was a nuclear reactor intended for making material for nuclear bombs.

Syria was already known to conduct nuclear research at three facilities located at Dayr, Al Hajar and Dubaya. “In 2004, Syria continued to develop civilian nuclear capabilities, including uranium extraction technology and hot cell facilities, which may also be potentially applicable to a weapons program,” the report said. As a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Syria is required to submit to IAEA safeguards and inspections. In January 2007, the United States froze the assets of three Syrian entities involved in the development of nonconventional weapons.

According to Gregory Schulte, former U.S. envoy to the IAEA, Syria may be operating more nuclear sites. In November 2011, an AP report seemingly confirmed those suspicions that Syria’s nuclear weapons program was not confined only to the plutonium reactor destroyed by Israel in 2007. Rather, it seems that a suspect building in the northeastern town of Hasaka (about 100 miles from the destroyed reactor) was once a centrifuge plant where Syria intended to manufacture nuclear weapons. Though the building today houses a textile factory, its layout and blueprints match almost exactly with a centrifuge plant built by the Gaddafi regime in Libya. A working centrifuge plant could have produced highly enriched uranium which would have given the Syrian’s an entirely separate route to an atomic bomb other than the destoryed plutonium reactor.

Israel’s attack raised tensions along the Golan Heights where Syrian actions had already provoked concern about the possibility of conflict. In March 2007, it was reported that Syria has positioned along the border with Israel thousands of medium and long-range rockets capable of striking major towns across northern Israel, including Haifa. A division was added to the Syrian army’s forward deployment on the Heights and the production of Scud missiles has been accelerated. Many of the rockets are hidden in underground chambers and in camouflaged silos. This deployment, coupled with other reports of Syrian troop mobilization and television broadcasts during May 2007 dedicated to “Golan Month,” may be an indication that Damascus is preparing for a future war.

Syria also continues to expand its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. The Syrians can now manufacture several hundred tons of chemical warfare agents per year at four separate production facilities. In late 2005, Jane’s Defence Weekly reported that Iran is providing technical assistance to help Syria develop the means to produce VX and Sarin nerve agents and mustard blister agent. According to a February 2009 report by Jane’s, Syria has been constructing a new chemical weapons facility in Al-Safir, the home of an existing chemical weapons production facility and a missile base with long-range Scud D ballistic missiles.

Syria and Iran

Under a mutual defense pact signed between Syria and Iran in 2005, Syria agreed to allow the deployment of Iranian weapons on its territory. On June 15, 2006, Syria’s defense minister, Hassan Turkmani, signed an agreement with his Iranian counterpart for military cooperation against what they called the “common threats” presented by Israel and the United States. “Our cooperation is based on a strategic pact and unity against common threats,” said Turkmani. “We can have a common front against Israel’s threats.” In December 2009, Syria and Iran signed an additional defense agreement aimed to face “common enemies and challenges.” In praising the agreement, Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said, “it is natural for a country like Syria – which has an inhumane and menacing predator like Israel in its neighborhood – to be always prepared [against possible foreign aggression].”

UN officials said in June 2007 the Iranians were preparing to transfer medium-range Shahab-3, Russian-made Scud-C missiles and Scud-B missiles in preparation for military action if it is attacked over its nuclear program. Many of these missiles can be fired from mobile launchers and are capable of hitting targets throughout Israel. Syria has already received, via Iran, hundreds of extended-range North Korean Scud-C missiles, and is reportedly building its own ballistic missiles from imported technology. North Korea has supplied complete Scuds and production equipment to Syria. In 2003, Syria was said to have a new Scud-D missile, developed with Korean assistance, which has a range of 300 miles (sufficient to cover all of Israel). The missile is also capable of carrying chemical weapons. The May 2006 U.S. intelligence report said Syria continues to seek help in building solid-propellant rocket motors, and that North Korea supplied equipment and assistance to the missile program. Syria is building its own liquid-fueled Scud missiles and is developing a 500-mile-range Scud D and other variants with help from North Korea and Iran, the report said.

“Syria test-fired three Scud missiles on May 27, 2005, including one that broke up over Turkey,” the New York Times reported. “These were the first such Syrian missile tests since 2001, and were part of a Syrian missile development project using North Korean technology and designed to deliver air-burst chemical weapons. The missiles included one Scud B with a range of 185 miles, and two Scud Ds with a range of 435 miles.” Months later, Western experts who examined the remains of the missile that fell in Turkey concluded Syria had introduced significant changes in the advanced model of the Scud D missile that gives it greater guidance capability and accuracy.

Over the objections of Israel and the United States, Russia announced plans in early 2005 to sell Syria advanced SA-18 anti-aircraft missiles. Russian President Vladimir Putin told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that the weapons were not shoulder-missiles favored by the terror organizations, but rather they would be mounted on vehicles, and therefore they would not endanger Israel. Putin also said Syria’s placement of the missiles would be designed to avoid a change in the balance of power in the area, but would prevent Israeli war planes from being able to fly over Syrian President Bashar Assad’s presidential palace in Damascus. Israeli defense officials still expressed concern that the mounted version could be modified into a shoulder-held version in a relatively simple process. From that point, the officials said, the missiles could easily reach insurgents in Iran or Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon.

Syria now has more troops and tanks, and nearly as many aircraft as Israel. The Assad regime fields armed forces totaling more than 380,000 men, with another 130,000 troops in reserve. Syria’s arsenal includes approximately 3,700 tanks and some 510 combat aircraft.

Though the quality of Syrian forces is regarded as inferior to that of Israel, the deployment of these forces facing the Golan indicates Assad is keeping his military options open.

The Terror Connection

Syria harbors in Damascus representatives of ten Palestinian terrorist organizations including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine all of which are opposed to advances in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. These groups have launched terrible attacks against innocent Israeli citizens, which have resulted in hundreds of deaths. Syria also supports the Iranian-funded Hezbollah.

For more than 30 years, Lebanon was essentially controlled by Syria. With Syrian acquiescence, Lebanon became the home to a number of the most radical and violent Islamic organizations. Hezbollah (Party of God), in particular, has been used by the Syrians as a proxy to fight Israel.

On October 19, 2004, the UN Security Council released a demand that Syria should abide by a resolution calling on Damascus to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon, dismantle the Hezbollah organization and respect Lebanon’s independence. Buoyed by the UN intervention, the opposition in Lebanon grew more vocal demanding an end to Syrian hegemony. After former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005, the pressure on Syria intensified and its troops were finally withdrawn in April.

Nevertheless, Syria continues to exercise great influence in Lebanon. Syria and its allies are believed responsible for a series of assassinations to undermine Lebanese democracy that have eliminated anti-Syrian members of the Lebanese parliament, the most recent attack coming in September 2007. Syria supplied Hezbollah with weapons used in the war fought with Israel in July 2006 and has been resupplying the organization in defiance of the UN since the war ended. Those rockets used in 2006 had ranges of 20 to 60 miles. In April 2010, the U.S. and Israel accused Syria of delivering shipments of long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Scuds have a range of more than 435 miles – placing Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Israel’s nuclear installations at risk.

(Um Ali is the wife of a rebel leading a group of fighters with ties to the MB, source: The Guardian)
“This is what I know of the revolution,” says Um Ali in her quiet, deep voice. “You run from shop to shop looking for things. But the pharmacies are empty. The grocery stores are empty. We toured half of Aleppo to try to find a bucket of yoghurt. This is revolution.
“You don’t have to work for the regime to be a shabiha,” she says, referring to the hated pro-government militias. “The grocer who raises the price of the vegetables is a shabiha.
“The fighting is there,” she nods her head towards the window, “but how do you feed your kids and give them a normal life in the middle of this? We used to know how our days started and ended. Now I can’t afford to think ahead. We just want to end the day alive.”

There’s a good chance that Al Nusra will be like a Sunni Hezbollah of Syria.

It can provide in ways that other FSA groups cannot. Like Hezbollah, it too is blacklisted by the US and is looked in askance by secular groups, but it has now a substantial source of domestic support, probably the most of any FSA group, though far from a majority. Its strength, like Hezbollah, is based on the poor, the rural population and the refugees- the most devout of Syria’s groups- and the ones with the most to gain from destroying the regime.

It also hates Israel, though the regime is currently the greater enemy.

The Aleppines can complain all they want. But they have no say in this war.

Shows how much you know about the Middle East. If you’re going to troll, try to do it with a little more intelligence.

Hezbollah is blacklisted by America as a terrorist organization. It was behind the Beirut bombings during the Lebanese Civil War that killed several hundred American marines. Since then, America and Israel have been mortal enemies with Hezbollah, and their allies in Iran.

My tunesian friend told me that the overall opinion of Leila Trabelsi was terrible. Everyone was able to see how the relatives of this hairdresser became involved more and more in corruption and crimes. Tastewise Asma is surely an other class, but when it comes to backing the mafia business and stand by the side of her man, those two are quite similar.

So here are where things stand after the Brahimi-Lavrov press conference:

– Assad refuses to leave
– Syian Coalition and FSA refuse to start dialogue till Assad leaves
– Russia is against foreign intervention
– US is in no mood for direct intervention
– NATO is in no mood for direct intervention
– FSA cannot win on its own, but it believes it can
– Regime cannot beat the “rebels”, but it believes it can
– The conflict is becoming more and more sectarian
– The Islamists within the FSA are gaining the upper hand
– The regime’s forces are getting more brutal and lethal

So, unfortunately, Syria seems to be entering a new darker phase, with Damascus being the epicenter of the war next. Unless someone within the inner circle of the regime decides to put an end to all of this madness and does something to push Assad out.

Refrigeration, no electricity for heating, no money for food: A report from the embattled city of Aleppo By Peter Steinbach

Even with school furniture people ignite fire to warm themselves

Yousef sticks the blade, Hassan with a pickaxe in the moist, red earth. A new body has just arrived. Quickly they have produced a new grave. What this looks like is not as important. Aesthetics play no role in these days, and with constant rain, this is also impossible. The soil is a deep, heavy mud. The two gravediggers are still progressing well. They’re a good team, although they do this only since three months. The war has trained them in no time.

The majority of the martyrs cemetery in Aleppo is littered with new graves. There are loveless mound with broken pieces of stone slabs, placed obliquely in the bottom, were the name is written on. Often you can not read them. Rebels of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and soldiers of the government troops are here peacefully. “There we have Amar Sedar, who was killed in the conquest of a military school near Aleppo,” says Hassan. Next to it is an officer of the regime. “Unknown” reads, the sign of his grave. “He was a Christian,” interjects Yousef. “We had him wrapped in a blanket. He might be a martyr, but that decides God.” Yousef points his finger to the sky.

The profession of an gravedigger was for the two men in their mid 30s the last alternative. “Because of the war, there are no more work,” said Hassan, who protects himself as his colleague with a red keffiyeh on his head from the rain. “Although this work is not paid,” added Yousef. “But the mourners give us tip. It’s not much, but it helps to survive.” “Survive” this is the motto of most of the inhabitants of Aleppo. At a diner in Tariq al-Bab: Although chicken are sizzling on the grill,kebab on skewers, potato boiling in fat, meatballs are ready to eat, even salad and bread is available. Next door you can buy on the market fresh fruits and vegetables. Even gasoline you can buy plenty. But few people can afford it yet. The prices have gone up by 10 times.
At the diner dirty children grab the remains of the food into their mouths.In the jumble of garbage men and women are collecting useable goods. Some parts of the city are difficult to access beacuse of the fighting. There are still queues in front of bakeries. Bread is in these bleak times the main food for many – dipped in olive oil or tomato sauce from a can. “The queues are not, however, as long as it used to,” says Suhed, an engineering student. “You need no longer wait for eight hours.”

To the poor supply situation comes the cold. In winter, temperatures can drop to freezing. “When the rain stops, there is frost,” said Mohammed, an English teacher. In the primary school you have got the benches from the classrooms and made into firewood. Electric heaters are pointless. Because electricity is available only a few hours a day, if at all. “And we did not have water for four days,” added the English teacher with a grin, as if the misery could only be endured by self-irony.

The 220 euros he earned before the Civil War let him life barely. “Now I have no income.”

In Bab al-Hadid, one of nine ancient gates to the old city of Aleppo, there is enough to buy firewood. “Quick, quick,” says the taxi driver. “Until the gate we have to run.” The Citadel is in sight. There, the Syrian army snipers are stationed, the street and the square in front overlooking the Bab al-Hadid and fire at any time. An seller in an hardware store shows the bullet hole on the driver’s side of his car . “The bullet of the sniper has gone through and has killed my brother,” says the shop owner. “You have to write his name . His name was Ahmed Kashi and was only 39 years old.”

Under the arches of the old city fire is burning on which tea is cooked. Mohammed, the English teacher, buys an ax to chop wood. He’d like to buy some of the plastic bags, which are filled with chopped firewood. “Much too expensive,” he says. “I look better in the country and cut off olive trees.” A hundred yards away the Citadel comes back into view. You can see numerous holes of the shots that were fired from there. Some passbyers dont care at all whether they are in the firing line or not. “Here, my friend died,” said an elderly man, pointing to the old stone wall with several bullet holes. “Back there 20 people died in a mortar attack,” cries another, referring to the end of the alley. That every moment both could be hit by a bullet seems to them insignificant. Defeatism after 21 months of war. You get used to the daily routine of death. Even the possibility of dying yourself anytime. Fortunately, the snipers on top of the Citadel either drink tea or sit at lunch, maybe they are asleep or just simply have no desire to shoot someone.

In a hospital in the city the manager and senior surgeon receives me in his office. Normally he does not let journalists into the house and insists on not to use names, and especially not to take any pictures. Maybe someone recognize the hospital over the furniture. “Journalists are responsible for the destruction of the Dar al-Shifa hospital,” the doctor says with emphasis, but not reproachful tone. “I do not want the same thing happens with our institution. I am responsible for my employees. We are one family.” On November 22, the Syrian Air Force warplanes bombed the largest hospital in the rebel-controlled part of the industrial city. 15 people, including two children and a doctor, were killed. 40 more buried under the rubble. Since September journalists who reported from around the world about the Dar al-Shifa. Photos of hundreds of injured and dead civilians were seen around the world. A bad publicity for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. On several occasions, the hospital, in the immediate vicinity of a brigade of the FSA was located, had been attacked and damaged. After the hospital was a major attraction of the press it seems that the decision was made to destroy the whole hospital.

A Spanish photographer had in August even asked his international colleagues not to publish names and photos of the building of Dar al-Shifa. But hardly anyone stuck in it. “How can we talk about the misery and injustice, if we have to keep everything secret,” said a French photographer. Immediately after the bombing of the hospital the FSA had to protect journalists against an angry mob. Popular anger had identified those responsible for the deaths of compatriots and the hospital immediately.

“You will understand,” says the head of the still existing hospital, “that my staff and the security guards at the door are instructed to prevent any photo and dismiss journalists.” This press policy has been successful. “All around us, many buildings were bombed, but not our hospital. The less attention, the better.” The manager of the hospital, who worked a long time in the UK assures that one is well equipped for trauma patients. From around the world supply is arriving. The Medical Council established two months ago of Aleppo took over the coordination and would distribute them to all hospitals.

“60 percent of our patients are civilians ” said the clinic director. A majority of the injuries are caused by snipers. “Many of them are very professional and shoot straight to the heart or in the head, and one can only observe the death of the victims.” But there were also lucky cases, like that of a ten year old boy. “The bullet went in the neck and on the other side out again without hurting anything worth mentioning. He was immediately sent home.” The senior doctor is afraid about the possible use of chemical weapons. The United States reported several times about the fact that the Syrian military would provide explosives with the deadly chemical sarin. “A terrible vision to which we must be prepared,” said the chief physician. As he, his staff and the hospital could prepare for this remains his secret. “About our work and our doctors I do not give information.”

In Seif al-Dawla, not far from the front line, Abu Mustafa is sitting outdoors in front of a burning furnace and drinks tea. He is the commander of a brigade of 1200 men, “The people of Aleppo hate us,” he says self-critical. “We have brought them the war, and an early end is not in sight.” In July, the FSA began with the liberation of Aleppo. “It was an ill-prepared foray, without careful planning and sufficient ammunition.” Abu Mustafa lights a cigarette and sips his tea glass. In his opinion, they should have waited a few months more. But from abroad, especially from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, then large arms shipments had been promised. “Once we would have established ourselves in Aleppo,” recalls the commander. “But what was sent was only so much that we could hold our positions.” Thank God we had captured in the barracks of the Syrian army plenty of ammunition and weapons. “Nevertheless, it may be some time before we take the city entirely.”

Neither government forces nor the rebels have in the past six months, profitted from decisive terrain gains. A stalemate has arisen. The population torments this uncertainty, as long as the war and the human distress are still ongoing. “There is no end in sight,” says Mohammed the English teacher. “Many of us do not know how to survive for months.” Day and night you hear the roar of gunfire, tanks, and the firing of mortars. In good weather, bombs could fall from fighter jets at any time. In winter,with the cold and the rain, no decision is in sight. “It’s not so much the fear of death, that demoralized us,” adds Mohammed, “but this utter uncertainty.”

About such thoughts the two gravediggers Hassan Yousef are not speculating. For them there is enough to do in the near future. “We have a crisis-proof livelihood, even if it is not much,” Hassan says with a pickaxe in his hand. We always have 25 free graves, in case thins have to be fast. “For individual deaths we dont use them. As we quickly lift a new one.” In the pouring rain they go back to work.

Forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad on Saturday seized a district of the central city of Homs after a fierce assault that sparked a humanitarian crisis, a monitoring group said.

“The army launched an offensive several days ago on the neighbourhood of Deir Baalbeh with heavy bombing, and the fighting and attacks continued until the rebels withdrew,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Coalition is making the same mistake than the SNC by adding their own condition to the Geneva agreement.
Keeping Bashar is not a whim, it is a necessity to ensure the unity of the army and the country and to keep the institutions running, as the international community has become aware of after 21 month. Today, there is no alternative to Bashar al Assad to keep that role at least until the country changes politically with multi parties and elections.
That’s a basic need that the opposition refuses to admit.

Al Khatib has been pumped by Qatar and the recent US ‘recognition’ to believe he is an acceptable alternative to Bashar. Yet, until now he has proved nothing yet, except preaching and whining. He has no control of the armed rebels, the promise of a ‘military’ committee to supervise weapons and money deliveries never materialized. He is just empty and arrogant talk.
Now, he will pay dearly his defense of Al Nusra. The US has not reiterated to him, the invitation to visit Obama and after a moment of excitement, he is gradually been sidelined.
While Ghaliun had France as it protector, Al Khatib has only Qatar whose political weight is zero.
Earlier, he said that he did not exclude to the possibility of dealing directly with Bashar to find a solution. Now it seems that to keep his job in the coalition and please the Moslem Brotherhood he changed his tune and showed a tougher line, just like the SNC.
In my view, like Ghaliun, he will become very soon irrelevant and will be replaced.
What has been needed all along is a political man who is able to conciliate the demands made by all parties.
Until he is found, for the sake of preserving what is left of Syria, Bashar must stay.

Did you know that there has been regular flights Cairo-Aleppo all along?
We all thought that Aleppo was in the hands of the rebels and that Egypt had broken its diplomatic relation with the ‘illegitimate’ regime. Well, we were mislead by some doom medias..

Today we learn that such flight has been cancelled. For how long? the media never tell us when it starts again.

Egyptian airport officials say Syria’s national airline has cancelled a flight to Aleppo because of fighting near the city’s airport, more than a week after rebel fighters declared a no-fly-zone over the city.

The international community’s envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has stressed the need for political dialogue between the government and rebels. Moscow has called the Syrian opposition’s refusal to hold talks “a dead end.”

“If you have a panic in Damascus and if you have 1 million people leaving Damascus in a panic, they can go to only two places – Lebanon and Jordan. Neither Lebanon or Jordan can support, without breaking, 500,000 refugees.”

Iran may be reconsidering position on Syria
As President Bashar Assad’s regime becomes increasingly isolated, Iranian officials and clerics appear divided on how to respond to their longtime ally.

“”The debate behind the curtains among experts and officials regarding the Syrian crisis is very hot,” said an Iranian journalist with close ties to the office of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Staunch support for Bashar Assad’s regime is costing the Islamic Republic of Iran a lot.”

“On the surface, Iranian officials stick to the view that Assad remains in control, and they welcome his emissaries. In Friday sermons, clerics close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, accuse Israel and Western powers of plotting to bring Assad down.

But faced with the slow-motion collapse of Assad’s regime, senior Iranian officials and clerics appear to be increasingly divided about how to respond. Under an Iranian peace plan unveiled this month, the Syrian president would remain in power through elections in 2014, although he could run again.”

But National Coalition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib rejected holding any meeting in Moscow. He also said the Kremlin must apologise for its past support of Assad before any meeting could be held in a third country.

Lavrov did little to conceal his fury at Khatib’s response.

“I understand that Mr. Khatib is not very fluent in politics and maybe he could benefit by hearing our position not from the media… but directly from us,” he said.

….
This is where Syria comes in. It is stomach-churning for me to suggest that Americans should work to salvage any part of Assad’s regime, which has slaughtered tens of thousands of Syrians. But the least bad option available may be for all powers to pursue two overriding, interlocking goals: Syria’s descent into a total bloodbath must be stopped. And Iran must agree to live up to its nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations by forswearing atomic weapons.

This does not mean protecting Assad and those close to him. They have to go. But there are generals and other officials from Assad’s Alawite minority who could credibly stay on in a transitional government. U.N. officials have identified a number of them in private contacts with the U.S., French, Russian and other governments, diplomatic sources tell me.

A Syrian coalition that provides physical and political protection for the Alawites and Syria’s other minorities, while reflecting the Sunni majority’s new power, could convince Russia and Iran that they could maintain some influence — however reduced that influence should and would be. (Paradoxically, such a coalition might also quiet Israel’s apprehensions about the strong presence of Islamic jihadists in the rebel movement and exert moderating influence on Egypt’s growing derogation of minority rights.)

I understand your frustration, but note that even the UN-AL envoy Lakhdar Ibrahimi was surprised that Al Khatib rejected the invitation.

After criticizing the USA for nominating Al Nusra a terrorist organization and asking Obama to change his mind, Al Khatib has lost his credibility as a peacemaker with the USA and the EU.
By acting as arrogantly with Russia and asking for apologies , he lost his credibility as an valid opposition with the Russian, with the UN and with the AL.

I thought he was immune, but the guy got the disease of paranoia… In my view his days are counted at the head of the Coalition, or if he stays, the days of the coalition are counted.

Muaz Khatib made excellent move rejecting Russia call for dialogue,it was implied recognition by Moscow of the Coalition,it was a blow in the face of Russia,and it was clear message to Brahimi that his plan is not acceptable.
Brahimi said it is either Hell or political solution,he is right,however Hell is the only way since Assad is such a stubborn person,
who will lose in this hell?, it is the minority,it is the Alawi sect where the majority of them supported Assad,because they miscalculated,they deceived themselves,if they are smart,they would have overthrown Assad,
Zoo is typical miserable wretched Alawi .
The battle for Damascus will not start till the airforce is neutralized, The airports Mannagh will soon be destroyed with 25 planes, it will be the decisive turn of events.

You asked sarcastically of course if the Alawi community if fully secular now:

Here is an answer for you:

The Alawis are more secular than what you think. They have been burned by religion since day one so they wish as anyone could tell to have a secular state.

Religion for the Alawis has always been danger from the first degree.

Secularism in Syria is important to keep a state. No secularism means division according to sect or ethnicity. Secularism beats both nationalism and sectarianism any given day. Alawis want a secular state and that is no secret

Can you please speak of the possibilities of Secularism among your the sect you came from?

“The battle for Damascus will not start till the airforce is neutralized”

I thought you and your Al Nusra friends announced the victory on Damas twice already in 2012 to end up in ‘tactical ‘retreats to the ‘liberated 70%’ of Syria

I see.. now we have to wait that the airforce is neutralized. When is that, a year, two years from now? Did the increasing dead numbers of ‘commanders’ of the FSA or the Turkish bunker dwellers told you?

I understand by your insults on Alawis that your frustration is growing at the same speed as the FSA and your dreams of a military victory are falling apart.

Published on Dec 29, 2012
A Wahhabi religious cleric in Saudi Arabia, Muhammed al-Arifi, who is very influential in Jihadi circles, has recently issued a fatwa (religious edict) that permits all Jihadist militants in Syria to engage in short-lived marriages with Syrian women that each lasts for a few hours in order to satisfy their sexual desires and boost their determination in killing Syrians. He called the marriage as ‘intercourse marriage’. It requires that the Syrian female be at least 14 years old, widowed, or divorced.

Is this the Western-promoted “freedom and democracy” that Syrians want?

If you admit that Al Khatib not only alienated the Russians but also the US, EU, UN, and the AL, so how can you in the same breath declare the opposition to be a foreign puppet to this or that? Shouldn’t one peruse one line of thinking?

MAJEDKHALDOUN is like the child who keeps asking daddy (Bashar) “are we there yet, are we there yet?”

MAJEDKHALDOUN’s terrorist friends already announced not one – but two – decisive battles for Damascus. The first was the Volcano back in July and the second was a few weeks ago – both times the rats were eliminated in great numbers.

What is funny is Salafists on this forum said Damascus was falling and fighting was near the presidential palace. They were greeted with laughter. God is indeed great friends.

Syria’s air force is being replenished by her true friends. There are no worries there.

For my ape-like friends on Josh’s wonderful forum I have an announcement: Homs is 100% rat free. The human feces has been flushed down the toilet and our army is now searching for those who ran and hid in civilian’s homes. BTW many in the SAA feel that any civilian who hides a terrorist is a legitimate target – Bashar is holding our army back for now but I can’t promise this will hold true next month or even next week.

That’s exactly the point. By acting like that, Al Khatib thinks he can “clean” the Coalition from its ‘shameful’connection to the coward West (that he hates by the way). He thinks that he would show his ‘independence’ and win the hearts and minds of All Syrians opposed to foreign interference and who wants a “Syrian solution”.

Yet, by doing so, nobody is fooled as he is just confirming that he is the exclusive puppet of the Moslem Brotherhood and its main supporter Qatar, just like the SNC was. (Even France and Turkey are not vocal anymore as they know the key is in the hands of the USA and Russia)
Like the SNC, the coalition, after a brief moment of glory, will be repelled by the Western countries as none wants to intervene and even to send weapons. They all made it clear that they want a political solution to the crisis, while Qatar and the MB are still working on helping the rebels of any creed, even Al Qaeeda to win militarily and finish up Bashar al Assad, their Nemesis.

If you think that Qatar’s money and ideology can change the political landscape of Syria, then you should continue to support Khatib and his friends Al Nusra.

Zoo
What you think depends on your brain, on your ability to recognize thimgs mentally, since you lack this you keep on deceiving yourself.
Look around , in the last few months the rebels gained grounds,,so who is retreating, it is Assad forces retreating,your source of informations is a media who is known to lie,lies and stupidity,is a miserable conditions.

Brahimi said a plan to resolve the conflict could eventually go to the U.N. Security Council for backing, but only if there was confidence it would be effective.

“What we need to have is a resolution that can work, and I think it is possible to get to that stage if =we continue to talk,” he said.
..
But Lavrov repeated Russia’s stance that President Bashar al-Assad’s removal cannot be a precondition for a political solution, saying that such demands were “wrong” and that the opposition’s refusal to talk to the government was a “dead end
…
“When the opposition says only Assad’s exit will allow it to begin a dialogue about the future of its own country, we think this is wrong, we think this is rather counterproductive,” he said. “The costs of this precondition are more and more lives of Syrian citizens.”

“your source of informations is a media who is known to lie,lies and stupidity,is a miserable conditions.”

Contrary to you, who rely exclusively on Al Arabya and Al Jazeera and rumors coming from your rebels and Al Nusra friend, my sources of information are much wider. They include Turkish, UK, US, Saudi, Kuwaiti, Gulf, France and other mainstream medias, most have been supporting the ‘rebels’, while recently subtly are becoming less supportive, in view of the developments.

I am puzzled that, after the two failures of the Damascus ‘victories’ you predicted based on your sources, you still have confidence in them.

US-NATO-Israeli Agenda: Syria to be Subdivided into “Three Weaker States”

Egyptian media pundit Tawfik Okasha, owner of the Egyptian opposition TV channel al-Fara’een, blamed the Mainstream Media of being complicit with the Muslim Brotherhood in feeding the Egyptian people lies about the Syrian crisis.

I actually do no believe Mr. khatib wants to be the alternative. I also believe that the whole idea of “Syria needing Bashar for the transition” is a big myth that regime supporters like to propagate. Tell me, what exactly is wrong with the notion of Farouk Alsharaa as a transitional figure? Why not? How about other figures in the Syrian government or army who have not been implicated with bombing cities and arresting and torturing demonstrators?

For the opposition, Bashar has become a symbol of brutality and aggression. I can understand their refusal to enter in any negotiation that does not guarantee his removal. What I do not understand is the other side’s insistence that he stays. If you want to find a genuine solution, why not start by taking out the controversial figures, on both sides, from the equation?

There’s actually a good chance that 15 years from now, Hezbollah and Al Nusra will be allies. This is not going to happen anytime soon: the two sides are technically at war with one another, but Hezbollah and al-Nusra are very similar to one another, more than either would like to admit.

Consider:

1. Both were born from a revolution/civil war.
2. Both use similar tactics: home-made rockets, guerilla attacks, and car bombs.
3. Both are supported by foreign suppliers. Iran for Hezbollah, the GCC for Al-Nusra

4. Both draw their support from the poor, the rural, and the devout of their countries.

5. Both are blacklisted by America as a “terrorist” organization.
6. Both hate Israel.
7. Neither side gets much press from the foreigners. The reason is many of you, Westerners or otherwise, have friends in Syria. But who has a friend that comes from the RURAL areas of Syria?

8. Both fight against the rich for the poor.
9. Both are ruthless and capable.

The only major point of difference between the two groups is that one is Sunni and the other is Shiite. Hezbollah and Al-Nusra are enemies because of Bashar Assad. But after the war is over, it is likely that the two groups will begin to work together against Israel.

The broker could be Iran: once the regime is finished, they will cut a deal with Al-Nusra. In return for the right to transfer weapons and arms to Hezbollah through Syria, Al-Nusra gets a cut of the Iranian supplies.

A deal like that would be good for all three groups. Iran, Hezbollah, and Al-Nusra may be enemies today, but their final enemy is Israel, who will still be around after this war is over.

Sorry if the following has already been posted on SC. Google search suggests it hasn’t.

Published on Youtube on 20th Dec 2012. Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP)

__________________________________________________

Is the End Near in Damascus?

[…]

To assess the latest developments and the potential implications of the regime’s downfall, The Washington Institute cordially convened a Policy forum luncheon in Washington, DC, with Andrew J. Tabler and Jeffrey White on Thursday, December 20, 2012,…

Qatar and KSA should pay more attention to Iraq,Maliki is a dictator,when dictatorship is hated, people must march toward Baghdad,and kick Maliki out,this guy is sectarian,persian Safawi to the bone,If Maliki uses force against demonstrators a revolution in Iraq will start,and people must defend themselves, if Iran interfere, All Arab countries must help Iraqis and Turkey too,
Maliki is targeting the sunni one by one, and he does not have the military power to fight his people.
Obama will regret not finishing Assad sooner

USA in state of panic: The Iranians are getting closer in South America that the USA have messed up for decades.

Obama signs law against Iran Latin America influence

29/12/2012

WASHINGTON, (AFP) – President Barack Obama enacted a law to counter Iran’s alleged influence in Latin America, through a new diplomatic and political strategy to be designed by the State Department.

The Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act, passed by lawmakers earlier this year, calls for the State Department to develop a strategy within 180 days to “address Iran’s growing hostile presence and activity” in the region.

Although the strategy is confidential and only accessible to lawmakers, it must contain a public summary.
..
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made regular visits to Latin America, though he only toured the region twice this year.

Tehran has particularly close ties with Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, where it has strengthened its presence through investments.

Massive protests in the Anbar governorate of Iraq have given rise to the idea of a “State of Western Iraq” that would encompass the country’s Sunni population. Some say this is an unrealistic scheme that will soon be forgotten, but others believe it may soon become a serious proposition.

What is wrong with Khatib and Sabra along with say Abdul Azim or Dalila?

Lacking the blue eyes and the microephaly?
—–

You have cult for no one? I dare you to say one bad word about Bashar. Forgive my honesty here but none during the last 2years I’ve known you on SC that you have found a single one bad thing about the Batta. Do you deny it? I am sure you can find many defects in people around you but never ever in Batta.

And by the way, the microcephal of Bashar is a medical text example. Not so apparent on TV, but shockingly real when you see him in person. He really really has a very small head.

BEIRUT: Syrian government forces have pushed rebels from a district in Homs after several days of fierce fighting in the strategically important city, opposition activists said on Saturday.

The army moved into Deir Ba’alba, a neighbourhood on the northeastern edge of Homs, they said, leaving the rebels controlling just the central neighbourhoods around the old city and the district of Khalidiyah, immediately to the north.
…
There were unconfirmed reports that dozens of fighters had been killed in the battle for Deir Ba’alba, the director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdelrahman, said.

Rebels have been gaining ground in recent months, particularly in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, and launched an offensive in the central Hama province which would extend their control south towards Homs and Damascus.

But an activist in Hama province said on Saturday that the army had reinforced its positions in the town of Morek, which lies on the main north-south highway linking Damascus to Aleppo, to push back rebels who were running low on ammunition.

A rebel attack on the military base of Wadi Deif, further north on the same highway, had also slowed as rebels struggled to maintain supplies, the activist who used the name Ali Al Idlibi told Reuters by Skype.

Syria is not the first or last country where warlords have emerged because of instability. Nor is it the first country to emerge from violent revolution, brutal dictatorship and sectarianism. Each of these problems will require creative and intelligent solutions, and whilst they are difficult they are by no means insurmountable. The key is to point out these challenges and not be caught off guard by them.”

I see your logic: if I don’t criticize someone, it means I have a cult.
Then I guess you have a cult for many people: Ghaliun, Sabra, Khatib etc… that you never criticized and loved.

By the way I did criticize Bashar for the mistakes he did at the start of the uprising, but then I stopped as this blog has been overloaded with hatred, sectarianism, vulgarities and insults and obsessed by revenge.

As for the “candidates’ you mentioned, they may be intelligent people, but the declarations that some did show that they are far from qualified to lead. They can’t hardly get along with each others as the “expats” ones have a very inflated ego and their western, Qatari or Moslem brotherhood intimacy is more than suspicious.

When the Alawis want to accept someone other than Bashar, they will find someone other than Bashar. The real problem was that the revolution has their candidate and for now it is al Khatib. Let the minorities supporters of the regime name their candidate as long as he/she does not have blood on their hands and let us form a transitional unity government. Now if the Alawis do not have a candidate, then too bad. The onus falls on them not on the revolution. What is so difficult with that?

I propse that al Khatib addresses the Alawis that way and ask them to name their none-blood-tainted candidate and with him forms a transitional government that leads us to a free election.

I really truly hope you have a cult for no one. It so much does not fit you.

Keep on repeating the same mindless chant over and over again. That way you can genuinely become a regime supporter!

Try to keep your critical thinking skills to a minimum. True die-hard regime supporters do not have those skills. Assad is an excellent example. The key to being a regime supporter is to be mindless and to chant whatever slogans that you may have heard before.

Congratulations! You’re on the way!!! Soon you will be just like Assad, your savior and thousands of other regime cultists around the world!

‘The people of Aleppo needed someone to drag them into the revolution’

…
Abu Ali goes to the small kitchen and squats before a small stove, boiling another pot of thick Turkish coffee. “Now I will sit with her,” he says. “We will lie on the mattress, turn off the light and talk about what happened today. This my favourite moment of the day.”
He goes back to the room carrying the pot. Um Ali is staring at the floor, her cigarette burning slowly between her fingers. Outside, the pop-pop sound of gunfire has ceased.
“I am scared of the silence,” she says. “I feel something bad will happen. When they are shooting, I know we are safe.”
…
After dinner he becomes reflective: “I mix everything. Filth with honesty. Street language with religion. I have mixed all the revolutions in me. I am the Bolshevik revolution, the French revolution. I am the modern Guevara.

“Do you know, I am so special. My wife hates it when I say this, but I have had angels fight with me. Many times. In battle, I can feel myself flying,” he says. “Flying above the ground.”

Observer thanks Mjabali for the news at #43 — from Al-Hayat website, an opinion piece by Ghassan Suleiman:

الثورة إذ تستجير بالعلويين…

A very bad Google translation provides a sketch of the Arabic story. I post the whole garble, hoping someone can amplify its main points:

Live Alawite community in the coastal area scene daily, where commonly people their children, military and Hbihh, who fell in the fronts of conflict between the regime and the revolution, Vttdakhal feelings of sadness, fear and loss with rituals evoke instincts and glorify violence, contribute to system hardware in dedication. But that began to intersect with the new reality on the landscape, the wider it. The Alawite community, today, home to a large number of refugees from cities revolution. This phenomenon, did not take their right to meditation, and will not take, when people believe in the Syrian revolution revolution of the Alawites.

When taking extensive destructive nature of the Army system increases with the beginning of last summer, he took the people, in the areas of Alawites and society, noticing the arrival of refugee families, of Homs and Aleppo, Damascus and its countryside and other areas, who came either displaced and the poor, they have no shelter, or others who are in the rule the middle class and below a bit, unable to rent houses and economic adjustment, and the minimum, with the case for asylum. This is what makes the Alawite community in direct contact with them, and place it in front of the social and political experience of a different kind at a delicate stage of the country’s history and destiny. While not delay this community in helping refugees, and human interaction and relief to them, first, has taken over time, showing forms of acceptance, where he stayed many refugees in the neighborhoods and lane popular with the majority of upper and mood supporter of the regime, and became wandering veiled woman Bmatafha long part familiar image of those neighborhoods, that keenness of her family, although they shed rabble, not exposure or abuse to their guests, who in turn were keen to avoid delving into politics, and respect for the general mood of the host community. Which facilitated the ability to search for work, where some refugees have found their place in the weak economy that society, relying on their superior professional and vocational and trade.

But the messages and implications inherent in this phenomenon is related to the links, community and political, crude and raw, related to both the land and the people. If these refugees, Sunni, may قصدوا hostile territory, the definition of some of those who counted on the opposition, they did so out of national consciousness instinctive and simple, is betting on its presence at all the people, in addition to contacts and previous relationships or new owners of those «Earth», who encouraged the birth of this phenomenon and Okmloha.

In another aspect, it seems that the owners of the land, the Alawites, have found in this phenomenon a communication tool, through which they can express their larger national affiliation, or their eagerness to confirm this association. That they, and perhaps in the context of Subliminal, are addressing society revolution, by way of their guests, and tell him that there is no enmity between us as fancy extremists on both sides. It remains to be the most important message you want to communicate, is that matter what some of them, and seeks, in terms of access to a private entity or sectarian statelet, even if his force and subjugation, it is rejected them, and will only be his fate failure.

It is a message in two versions, the second of the revolution, first those who claim to represent them and monopolized.

ZOO notes the heaving bombing of Homs, finally, and its hideous humanitarian crisis — and cites the Syrian Observatory as grist for his conclusions of a ‘wheel turning.’ This is encouraging. As several here have mentioned repeatedly, agreeing on some basics is essential to dialogue.

(speaking of Dialogue, I urge Syria Comment commentators to check out the Creative Syria ‘Dialogue’ site. Although the mysterious entity Marigoldran says it is irrelevant, the list of names who contributed include ‘inside’ citizens — whether inside the NCB-Binaa/Building-State or independent)

Some of you may remember the grand theatre of the official dialogue sessions that were broadcast on Syrian state TV back many many months. The visuals were striking: a vast room lined along its four walls with massive tables. Flowers. Video displays.

Some will also remember the moments when the agenda was subverted, taken from the hands of the convener and chair: Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa.

Some might remember the few voices who spoke beyond the red line, who spoke of the madness of the ‘security solution.’ One of them was Tayyeb Tizini.

As all will remember, the curtain was closed immediately after this theatre. And all those subversive voices were not heard from again in state-controlled organs.

At the Syrian Dialogue site it looks like some of the self-same insiders thrashed out a general landscape of dialogue. Unless all the participants are killed in a general bloodbath, they will be voices, however small, in the political life of Syria, once the war is over.

Why not give them heed now? Why give heed to a Revenire or the anti-Revenires? These are rootless, nameless internet observers with little stake or residence in Syria, whose relevance to shaping events is marginal today and tomorrow.

As for the al-Hayat story, this is another kind of dialogue, a whisper from mysterious Lattakia. The Alawite folks have refugees in their midst who do not all come from the minorities.

The expectation of savage reprisals and revenge attacks is heightened in the minds of many if not most commentators and analysts, from Landis, White, all the way to Abdulhamid.

Is there a chance that some of the expected deaths can be averted?

What do the Alawites of Lattakia say? We really have no idea. That is one of the tragedies of Syria’s oppressive media regime (SANA-style official media rarely uses the word or cognates to Alawi/Alawite. No mention, no discussion, taboo).

Observer, can you analyze and comment on the ‘news’ introduced by Mjabali? Can anyone place it in context of doom and tell us what it means for the coming months?

Here’s context for my mention of the National Dialogue conference chaired by Farouk Al-Sharaa. July of 2011. I can’t recall offhand if ZOO had stopped criticizing ‘mistakes’ by this point or not.

The ‘mistakes’ that cannot now be named by ZOO for some odd reason, were then connected with the ‘security solution.’

These were almost innocent days. Protesters shot by security forces and shabiha were at the level of fifteen a day back then. No bombing yet. No artillery. No jets in the sky. No barrel bombs from helicopters. No summary executions en masse. No tanks firing on Homs.

From the media of the day:

Vice-president Farouk Al Shara, opening the conference, acknowledged it was taking place in an atmosphere of “uncertainty and distrust, of rejection and worry”.

However, he called it a historic event, saying he hoped it marked a step towards fundamentally transforming Syria’s autocratic, single-party system of governance.

“We are going to hold a comprehensive national dialogue during which we will announce Syria’s transition towards a multi-party democratic state, in which everyone will be equal and able to participate in the building of the nation’s future,” Mr Al Shara said, in a speech to about 200 delegates, who were overwhelmingly from pro-regime organisations.

No major opposition figures or dissidents were in attendance, with the opposition refusing formal talks with officials as long as a deadly security crackdown continues and thousands of protesters remain jailed.

Security forces have killed more than 1,400 civilians since the March uprising began, according to human rights groups, with more than 15 fatally shot on Friday.

About 10,000 demonstrators and suspected dissidents are in custody, with widespread reports of serious abuse of detainees.

Abdul Karim Rehawe, a leading civil-rights activist in Damascus, who had joined the boycott, said: “Even as this meeting is taking place, security services are carrying out raids and arresting more protesters.

“Dialogue means the authorities have to talk to the protesters and that simply isn’t happening,” he said. “There is no dialogue taking place, and any suggestion that it is, is just an illusion. The authorities are saying one thing but doing another.”

Much of the two-day long conference’s opening session was shown live on state television, including the delivery of highly critical remarks by the few independent figures present, who are considered close to the opposition.

Tayyeb Tizini, a dissident writer, told delegates: “The bullets are still being fired in Homs and Hama. I would have hoped that that would have stopped before the meeting. That’s what’s necessary,” referring to on-going security service operations in two major Syrian cities.

Mr Tizini called for “dismantling of the police state” and for thousands of prisoners of conscience to be freed immediately.

Syrian politicians, intellectuals and clergy were given an unusual opportunity to criticize the country’s security apparatus on national television Sunday during the first round of state-sponsored and opposition-boycotted dialogue meetings.

The dialogue, aimed at easing tensions in a nation racked by months of protests against the regime of President Bashar Assad, came a day after Human Rights Watch issued a devastating report chronicling the bloody practices of the security forces during the anti-regime uprising.

“We should dismantle the security state that dominates the whole society. Now we are suffering the consequences of the police state. The police state will destroy every aspect of society as it keeps tabs on every Syrian citizen,” Tayyeb Tizini, a professor of philosophy at Damascus University who was briefly arrested in March by security forces, said during the televised conference in Damascus, Syria’s capital.

“A part of what is going on is a result of foreign intervention, but 80% of it is a result of internal congestion that comes as a result of oppression and the practices of the security apparatus,” said conference participant and parliament member Mohammed Habash in a rare public recognition of the role played by state security forces in a four-month-long cycle of bloodshed.

The talks came after Assad’s call last month for a “consultative meeting” to set the framework for constitutional amendments and reforms.

“All sides of Syrian society were called on to participate in the meeting,” said Vice President Farouk Shara in the opening address. He said he hoped the meeting would be a step toward making Syria a democratic state based on political inclusivity.

The participants were called on to discuss Article 8 of the Syrian Constitution, which preserves the Baath Party’s leading role in the country’s politics.

But the absence of key opposition figures has already led many to question the credibility of the initiative.

ZOO, any comment on the ‘mistakes’ made in that first attempt at dialogue by the regime, mistakes that should not be repeated in the present attempts at dialogue?

______________________

In other minor league news, the stupidest comments of the day are these:

— Zoo is typical miserable wretched Alawi .

— you and your Al Nusra friends

— your dreams of a military victory

— MAJEDKHALDOUN’s terrorist friends

— Salafists on this forum

— ape-like friends

— many in the SAA feel that any civilian who hides a terrorist is a legitimate target

— They all made it clear that they want a political solution to the crisis

— By the way I did criticize Bashar for the mistakes he did at the start of the uprising, but then I stopped as this blog has been overloaded with hatred, sectarianism, vulgarities and insults and obsessed by revenge.

This is how civil wars end. When all parties start looking for names that are acceptable to all. Zoo, if you call this a civil war and you genuinely want an end to it, then you (people on your side) need to come up with names. I am positive there are a lot of people out there (Bashar himself said so in one of his interview).

If you keep insisting that Bashar is our savior, even after what happened to Syria under his leadership in the past two years, then you are, forgive me, delusional. I really hope people who take the same stand as you do will wake up before it is too late.

Russia’s Foreign Minister says Assad insists on staying in power. Indeed, Assad underscored his determination today by having his militias perpetrate a new massacre against 220 residents of Deir Baalbah. Meanwhile, the self-appointed “heroes” and “guardians” of the revolution, the brave men of Jabhat Al-Nusra were busy fighting against immorality in Aleppo City by emptying Arak bottles into the drains of history, the same drains where their ideas will follow one day. As for Russian officials, it is about time they learned some necessary humility and began coping with blowbacks stemming from their idiotic and murderous policies in our region. While so many leftwing and Islamist pundits keep focusing on America’s alleged role in our misery, it is Russia’s all too real role that is now coming into sharp focus. In fact, it is insisting on Assad’s staying in power and backing that up with weapons and vetoes that has cost us so many lives.

The perspective of Syria’s future resembling Somalia is offering a stricking dilemma to the Western country. If the West wants a political solution before this happens, they are bound to have to make serious compromises to their egos that mislead them in rushing them into unrealistic geopolitical goals. The regime has nothing to loose anymore, the West has.

Many felt that the death of Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and numerous other key members of the al-Qa’ida leadership had stemmed the tide of the movement and the global jihad. But as terrorism issues appear to be slipping down the hierarchy of perceived risks in much of the Western world, the trends that are emerging from the Syrian conflict remind us that al-Qa’ida is in this campaign for the long term.

Recent reports in this newspaper of the numbers of Australians involved in the conflict in Syria provide further evidence, if it were needed, of the significance of Syria from a counter-terrorism perspective.

You have no clue what these men are saying in the video you linked to in your post number 130:

First: Ali Khuzam is not the singer but the man with the white suite who was telling the singer what to sing.

Secondly: They sing to Ali and al-Mustafa. al-Mustafa is the Prophet Mohammad.

Apparently you have no clue.

Third: This character (Ali Khuzam) speaks about his unit that was a 50 persons unit where now he has only three men left. Which means that he lost 47 of his men in battle. This means according to this man that the opposition had killed 47 of his men. Not like what you said that he killed 47 men.

Please learn Arabic before you stick your nose into something you have no idea about.

AS 2012 COMES to a close, Syria is headed toward a bloody and chaotic end to what began as a peaceful uprising against an autocratic regime. This would be a catastrophe that could destabilize much of the Middle East, provide al-Qaeda with a new base of operations, and lead to the transfer or even use of chemical weapons.

Above all, the crisis is the result of the brutality and ruthlessness of ruler Bashar al-Assad and the family clique around him, and their supporters in Iran and Russia. But it is also reflects a massive failure of Western — and particularly American — leadership, the worst since the Rwandan genocide two decades ago.
…
If that happens, the United States may find itself with little influence. Most rebel leaders, and average Syrians, are furious at Washington for withholding meaningful aid. They may be disinclined to listen to calls for dismantling the extremist groups that helped win the war. One way or another, Syria will haunt President Obama’s second term — and, based on the record so far, it will be recorded as one of his greatest failures.

In all likelihood, some end to the regime appears inevitable, if not immediately, then in the not very distant future. The question now being posed is: what happens next? And while the desire to predict and second-guess is hard-wired into our natures, not least the nature of journalists and analysts, it’s probable that we will get it badly wrong.

The tools most commonly used to try to explain complex situations such as conflict, including the predilection for historical analogy to explain current events, are often deeply misleading, as the impressive Kings of War blog of the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London cautioned before Christmas. The reality is that the Middle East is not the Balkans of the 1990s, nor is Egypt revolutionary Iran. “The truth,” the Kings of War concluded, “is we should probably not be surprised by the things that surprise us.”
,,,,
We cannot say whether Syria after Assad, with its specific social and sectarian tensions, will resemble Libya post-Gaddafi or Iraq post-Saddam. All conflicts and all post-conflict situations are unhappy, or unstable, in their own particular way.

What we can say about the Arab Spring is not where we may end up, but where we are now – and that is in the midst of a grand reshaping of all the regional assumptions that have stood for almost a generation.

According to you, and google translate this sentence became the following in your post:

Live Alawite community in the coastal area scene daily, where commonly people their children, military and Hbihh, who fell in the fronts of conflict between the regime and the revolution, Vttdakhal feelings of sadness, fear and loss with rituals evoke instincts and glorify violence, contribute to system hardware in dedication.

The translation of this long sentence is this:

The Alawi community in the Coastal areas lives a daily scene, where people bury their sons, whether they were soldiers or Shabiha that had died in the battle between the regime and the revolution, where the feelings of sadness, fear and loss are intermixed with rituals, where the regime contributes to solidify, that invokes primal senses and glorify violence.

Thanks for the link. So Batta is now afraid from going out in the sunlight, sleep in a different room each day, and paying particular attention that his shawrma is not poisoned? Divine justice, isn’t it?

He is probably sleeping under the bed.
—-
Are the souls of all those he killed haunting him? I wish some one carries a project where the faces of all those who he killed are shown as a small thumbprints in a big poster and sent to him as a new year gift…with a frame from Chelsea to suit Asma’s taste.

“According to you, and google translate this sentence became the following in your post”

Sigh…. Did your dog teach you English as well as History?

This is what WSS actually wrote:

A very bad Google translation provides a sketch of the Arabic story. I post the whole garble, hoping someone can amplify its main points

Maybe next time you should not make fun of other peoples lack of language skills when you yourself suffer from the same problem.

Oh btw do you have any ACTUAL links that prove your point that Damascenes were talking ONLY Turkish up until WW1? Because as any Damascene would tell you the Turks were seen as INVADERS and only the folks that were in bed with them spoke their language and that Damascus actually decayed under Ottoman rule because its people never wanted to be subservient to their rule. But hey who am I to rebuttal what your dog has to say…

Again, Tara you believe what you want to believe for emotional and psychological needs. Where are the “cousins” and why hasn’t the press paraded them around? This is the sort of thing the press wallows in and would be news all over the world but there is nothing to it.

This painting is inside the Umm Rais mosque in Qardaha, as I have experienced, a mosque closed throughout the year, only to be opened by special request.

I mean all dictatorships have their comedy part, but why the heck do all the dictators of this world seem to adore their mothers? Ask a Syrian if he knows when the mother of Hafez died. They all know it, it was publicated all over Syria.

If Tara actually knew Asma’s cousins and they had publicly broken with Asma they’d be famous in the press worldwide – all the press, not just Qatar’s Al Jazeera or the Saudi prince’s various news organs. It would be a simple matter for Tara to post links to the news reports so we could verify. I’d love to read about this but understand Tara speaks from emotion and not reason. She stuck her foot in it and can’t get it out.

Tara as with most things you say these are rumors are spread on the Internet, like the silly reports of ‘FSA victories’ and ‘SAA defections’. I am satisfied with your half-heated apology. It is like the racist claiming to have black friends, the anti-Semites having Jewish friends or Islamophobes claiming to have Muslim friends. You’ve been here all day, every day for almost two years – bleating like a little lost sheep about how Assad will fall ‘soon’. The pathology is fascinating.

If you actually believed in the ‘revolution’ you’d leave the comfort of the East Coast and go to Syria to fight with your brothers in the al-Nusra Front.

“the United States may find itself with little influence. Most rebel leaders, and average Syrians, are furious at Washington for withholding meaningful aid”

Furious? Then they’re a pack of hypocrites. These fakes and frauds and phonies spent the past forty years heaping insults and abuse on the USA and now that things have blown up in their goofy faces, they expect the USA to be forthcoming? Please. I suggest that they pray to their false God. Perhaps he’ll wake up and throw them a bone.

It is true that President Hafiz Assad destroyed the Alaway chance of a separate state because he always believed in Arab Nationalism , while others were propping the Kurds, the Sunni , the Druz and having separate identity president Assad considered all Syrians as Syrian Arabs with equal rights, that explains the reason that the Alawat Area were not developed as expected with Alaway leadership, he always was worry that he will be considered as having difrent rules for the Alawat from the others, He really believed in the Arab Nation that Syria is part of and of peaceful Islam, he was probably wrong.

A Poem Dedicated to the Fake “Syrian” Revolution (apologies to PJ Harvey):

All and Everyone

Death was everywhere
In the air and in the sounds
Coming off the mounds of Bolton’s Ridge
Ooh, death’s anchorage

When you rolled a smoke or told a joke
It was in the laughter and drinking water
It approached the beach as strings of cutters
Dropped into the sea and lay around us

Death was in the ancient fortress
Shelled by a million bullets
From gunners waiting in the copses
With hearts that threatened to pop their boxes
As we advanced into the sun
Death was all and everyone
Death was all and everyone

As we advancing in the sun
As we advancing every man
As we advancing in the sun

Death hung in the smoke
And clung to 400 acres of useless beach front
A bank of red earth, dripping down
Death is now and now and now

Death was everywhere
In the air and in the sounds
Coming off the mounds of Bolton’s Ridge
Oh, death’s anchorage

Death was in the staring sun
Fixing its eyes on everyone
It rattled the bones of the Light Horsemen
Still lying out there in the open

As we advancing in the sun
As we advancing every man
As we advancing in the sun
Sing, “Death to all and everyone”

I had no sarcastic intention in asking the question to Majbali. I genuinely thought that perhaps the Alawi community may have decided that a true civil society is needed now more than ever.

The fact that Majbali posted the story of displaced Sunnis living in Alawi areas was to me a sign of co existence but Majbali can be sensitive to my posts and I have tried to be neutral but alas I have been branded and classified by him.

As for what the other questions posted, I do not think that the inner circle of the regime is driven by pure sectarian thinking, it is driven by pure mafiosi thinking and it does not matter who is sacrificed for the circle to survive.

They will play any card to stay in power. The circle won the war of holding hostages, Syria hostage, Alawi hostage, minority hostage, even Russian interest hostage; but alas they can win these battles and lose the war.

As ZOO pointed out how the US lost in Vietnam I also remind the readers that the US used to destroy the village to save it. These so called victories are phyrhyic ones of no consequence

“So Batta is now afraid from going out in the sunlight, sleep in a different room each day, and paying particular attention that his shawrma is not poisoned? Divine justice, isn’t it?”

Don’t be overjoyed, that be will apply to Al Khatib and his gang of expats the day they will dare put a foot in Syria.

Their fear is already apparent.
Why Al Khatib or Atassi or Sabra have not come to visit any of the ‘liberated areas’?
Who came to visit the camps on the Turkish borders or in Turkey where their ideological and absurd “revolution” dumped millions of refugees to live in foreign land after having lost their homes, brothers and most of all dignity?

According to the following report, high ranking military sources in the Lebanese army have concluded the count down for Assad fall (militarily) has just begun. The sources further claim that such fall could happen overnight,

This assessment is in in stark contrast to latest predictions by الشرع and similar sources in Russia. Needless to say the Lebanese government and military are both apprehensive about such prospects due to the repercussions on the stability of both. Therefore, such assessment can be considered more realistic than any other that is seeking to project a false image of normalcy and all good in the house of cards while the crumble is imminent.

“If Tara actually knew Asma’s cousins and they had publicly broken with Asma they’d be famous in the press worldwide – all the press, not just Qatar’s Al Jazeera or the Saudi prince’s various news organs. It would be a simple matter for Tara to post links …..”

I feel obliged to reclaim the expression which I seem to have made popular on this forum as attested by you copying it varbatim as in your comment @ 149: you are bleating like a little lost sheep.

I take it that immitation is the highest form of praise. But coming from such as you I would think of it as less as such. I would think of it as more of some novice trying to rise to the level of a master.

Visiting refugees in Sanli Urfa with Moaz al Khatib at his side, Sheikh Erdogan announces the ‘rebirth’ of Syria.
Curiously, why wasn’t Al Khatib making that announcement in arabic? Is he not the ‘legitimate representive of the Syrian people”? Was he disguised too?

“I can see it clearly that the help of God is near,” Erdoğan said in televised remarks at Turkey’s Akçakale refugee camp in the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa. Erdoğan was welcomed to the 25,000-people settlement by thousands of cheering Syrians, who were waving Turkish flags and holding a giant portrait of him.

“You have suffered so much but do not despair,” Erdoğan said.

The Turkish leader was accompanied by Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, who flanked the premier along with several of Erdoğan’s deputies.

Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said on Sunday he has a proposal to end the deadly 21-month conflict in Syria “that could be adopted by the international community.” “I have discussed this plan with Russia and Syria… I think this proposal could be adopted by the international community,” the UN and Arab League envoy said in Egypt after meeting League chief Nabil al-Arabi.
…
“There is a proposal for a political solution based on the Geneva declaration foreseeing a ceasefire, forming a government with complete prerogatives and a plan for parliamentary and presidential elections,” he said, referring to a failed peace initiative that world powers agreed to in Geneva in June.

Charlie Hebdo, a controversial French satirical weekly newspaper known for publishing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, has announced plans to publish a “perfectly halal” comic series about the Prophet Muhammad’s life starting Jan. 2, 2013,

It also shows the destroyed depot of ammunition worth few million dollars that the regime scrambled to destroy after it lost it for fear of turning the military balance against it. Nevertheless, the regime also lost the opportunity to use it.

153 Dorothy from Kansas
You are all confuesd mixing up the 40 yrs of the regime actions with the true Syrians
and yes It is true that the Syrians are not the biggest fans of the US policies in the Middle east,but what they did not expect from them was forcing others not help,like by pressuring the like of Qater to not send the Russians S7 from Libya to counter the unrelenting massacres by the regime air force
Listen,this is not your fight, and you dont know what you are talking about,so kick your heals three times and wake up,I know it is hard for you to leave, the flat state of Kansas has nothing but rednecks ,tornadoes, Steers and queers.and this site give you some kind of relese to your living in Kansas delima.
Maybe you sould move outta there, before long this site eventually will not do, and you might go postal on some or on some school

@Juergen you say “tomato”, I say “tomato”. Assad is a man who loves his mother and there is nothing wrong with that. If we listened to you I am certain you would say he is murdering innocent civilians that offer him flowers of reform instead of guns of death.

@Syrian this Israeli newspaper story you posted was posted yesterday, or the day before, and it has already been discredited by a statement from Asma’s cousin. You don’t seem to follow the posts here but react in a knee-jerk fashion.

Allow me to repeat myself: if Tara knew Asma’s cousins – as she claimed – and could offer them as proof (she said they rebuked Asma in public) then we would not need to paste the discredited הארץ “story” would we? I will wait a long time for such news to be posted because it isn’t real (not that this fact would stop Tara but she needs a newspaper to print it and even the Qatari apes and Saudi dogs don’t stoop so low).

After the terrible bloodletting on the battlefields, the fever began to die down. People looked war in the face with cooler, harder eyes than in those first months of enthusiasm, and their sense of solidarity began to weaken, since no one could see any sign of the great “moral cleansing” that philosophers and writers had so grandiloquently proclaimed.
…
A report on the Open Democracy website a few days ago reported that demonstrators in the rebel-held Bostan al-Qasr quarter in Aleppo chanted, “All armies are thieves: regime, Free [Syrian Army] and Islamists.”

Armed militiamen of Jubhat Al Nusra, the Islamist faction backed by Saudi Arabia and deemed terrorists by the United States, dispersed them with live fire. On both sides, those who demand negotiation over bloodshed are marginalised and worse.

….
Syrians who grew up with regime repression are discovering the anarchic brutality of life in “liberated” zones. Guardian correspondent Ghaith Abdul Ahad attended a meeting of 32 senior commanders in Aleppo last week. A former regime colonel now in command of Aleppo’s military council told his comrades: “Even the people are fed up with us. We were liberators, but now they denounce us and demonstrate against us.”

Zoo makes an excellent point: The “rebels” claim to control most of Syria so please tell us why the French-US-UK appointed leadership of doesn’t come to visit the liberated territories? Al Khatib-Atassi-Sabra could set up shop in Kafranbrel and enjoy the lovely terrorist artwork. Imagine the morale booster the al-Nusra/FSA rodents would get.

I remember when the Fake Syrian Army said they were moving their headquarters to Syria – except they didn’t. How can you move your headquarters from Paris-London-Washington to Damascus with Assad in power? You can’t. 🙂

to be precise, Hafez named a mosque after his mother and let the whole nation weep over the deceased, I hope and pray that Bashar will not have the time to think of such measures for Anise. Anyway, the memory of such times and such acts will soon be forgotten when this whole Al Wahash show ends.

@Reve
Like Sami said it is funny you used Alarabia when it suits you.
and as if we don’t know how the regime works, they most likely have got someone she really cares about and threaten do to them what they did to the old mother and father of the musician AlJandaly
You wanted a link outside the 2 you mentioned and I got them for you
BTW,I’m Just wondering.Every time you write the word Ape.Do you go back in time to the good old days before the revolution, or to your childhood when you must have used it or heard it about million time from you relative and elders?
edited. I mean you do use the word QURED a lot in your lingo.

I didn’t use Al Arabiya when it suited me. Saudi princes are able to buy newspapers and television networks because they have a lot of money – they can also buy defections. Money sways men. Is this news?

I said a LINK of what Tara talked about – the OTHER cousins – not the one already saying she never said such a thing. Tara said she knew Asma’s cousins and they publicly said this and that but could not provide one link. Then she changed her story and said it wasn’t really public but maybe at a dinner party overheard by guests.

Many women are jealous of Asma. It would not surprise me to find relatives who want her life and her man. This happens in families. Of course to you everything is about the fake revolution but ask yourself if these cousins cared why not come out and say it LOUD?

“139. TARA said:
Reve,
She was probably forced to deny it because of a threat to her life or to her loved ones.
I personally know some cousins of Asma who are very much anti-Batta and publicly”

“142. REVENIRE said:
Again, Tara you believe what you want to believe for emotional and psychological needs. Where are the “cousins” and why hasn’t the press paraded them around? This is the sort of thing the press wallows in and would be news all over the world but there is nothing to it.
Link me to the stories if you have them.”

“146. TARA said:
Reve
May be one of those days I’d tell you but for now I can’t .
And when I said publicly, I meant their position is well known to Asma and her parents.”

Tara shot her mouth off, sitting in a warm home on the East Coast of the US as Syrian children freeze to death, and then Tara was FORCED to back off her ridiculous statement.

Tara knows Asma’s cousins like I know Qatari emirs. In other words, Tara posted more trash talk – like the silly “demonstration” of 20 people someone posted. The important thing about the video is 1.) the shops are open for normal business 2.) people are allowed to demonstrate even with a war going on.

Russian news agencies say the navy is sending another ship to the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russia has a naval base.

The reports Sunday by the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agency cited an unidentified official in the military general staff as saying the Novocherkassk, a large landing ship, has set sail from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. The ship is expected to arrive in the Tartus area in early January.

The reports gave no information on the ship’s intent. But Russian diplomats have said that Moscow is preparing a plan to evacuate thousands of Russians from Syria if necessary. The Defense Ministry announced two weeks ago that several ships were being dispatched to the Mediterranean.

174Zoo said
“A report on the Open Democracy website a few days ago reported that demonstrators in the rebel-held Bostan al-Qasr quarter in Aleppo chanted, “All armies are thieves: regime, Free [Syrian Army] and Islamists.””

Here is an explanation of how the regime forged the video from a demonstration against the regime to one against the FSAhttp://youtu.be/hucKz61D-kI

Bye Bye Ryad al Asaad, Bye General Sheikh wherever you are and Welcome to freshly defected General Idriss who will unify and lead the “supreme” council of the FSA

Syria rebels promote leader Selim Idriss to general

From: AFP
December 30, 2012 12:01AM
THE newly formed supreme military council of the rebel Free Syrian Army has promoted its leader to the rank of general, in the first decision since its creation this month.

“The first decision of the supreme military council, taken on December 26, is to promote Brigadier Selim Idriss to division general,” Colonel Abdel Jabbar al-Okaidi, head of the rebel military council in the northern province of Aleppo, said in a video message posted on the internet.

Brigadier Idriss, a military engineer who defected from the Syrian army in July, had been elected chief of staff for the rebel military council following its formation in mid-December.

The council was created to unify the ranks of the rebellion and falls under the National Coalition, which has been widely recognised by the international community as the legitimate political representative of the Syrian people.

“Another big lie of Al-Arabiyya exposed: or how Western media once again went along with the media of the House of Saud. On the recent Syrian defector
From Ali, Angry Arab’s chief correspondent in Turkey: ‘Another lie of Al Arabia is exposed
According to Hurriyet Daily, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources deny the defected Syrian officer is ‘the head of military police and Major General.’ They emphasize that Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal is not the head of the military police and even not a major general but a colonel. An opposition source has said that ‘He wants to present himself as a hero but only a swindler’.”

The microcephales like Hollande a few weeks ago were announcing “high-level defections”. They were dreaming of them.
When they woke-up they got stunned by the unity and resilience of the Syrian army fighting the terrorists that are carrying the “non-lethal weapons” they sent.
All they got as defections are tiny fishes that Al Arabya and Al Jazeera immediately promote to “barracudas”.
Nobody is fooled, these defectors are traitors to both side. For their own security, they better join the others in Bakkourland.

The emergence of the Syrian National Coalition means that the West and its regional Sunni allies are now backing a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated coalition as the preferred replacement for the Assad regime.
The intention is to align with and strengthen Muslim Brotherhood-associated elements while painting Salafi forces as the sole real Islamist danger.

At the same time, secular forces are ignored or brushed aside.

This dynamic is plainly visible in the composition of the new military council. The founder of the Free Syrian Army, secular former Syrian Air Force colonel Riad Asaad, is notably absent. Gen. Mustafa al-Sheikh, the first of his rank to defect to the rebels, is not there either. Sheikh is known for his fierce opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hussein Haj Ali, the highest ranking officer to defect so far, is absent as well.

A Reuters report on the new joint military council calculated that the Muslim Brotherhood and their allies account for about two-thirds of the 263 men who met in Antalya and formed the new body. Salafi commanders are also there.

The new council is headed by Brigadier Selim Idriss, who is described as a non-ideological military man. But his deputies, Abdel-basset Tawil of Idlib and Abdel-qader Saleh of Aleppo governate are associated with the Salafi trend.

The domination by the Muslim Brotherhood of the new military council mirrors the movement’s leading position in the new civilian leadership body – the Syrian National Coalition. The leader of this coalition is Ahmed Mouaz al-Khatib, former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

Khatib is closely associated with the Damascus branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
…
A counter-argument could also be made according to which in the Arab world in 2012, a non- Islamist popular force able to rival the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis in commitment and organizational capacity would be highly unlikely.

Americans began their descent into deception and tyranny in the final years of the 20th century with the Clinton regime’s aggression against Serbia and murderous sanctions on Iraq. These war crimes were portrayed by the US media and foreign policy community as great achievements of Western democracy and humanitarianism.

In the first decade of the 21st century Americans lost their constitutional protections and had their pocketbooks opened to indefinite wars. The latest report is that Washington is sending US troops into 35 African countries. http://rt.com/usa/news/us-deploying-troops-order-749/print/
—————————————————-
Alex speaks with Congressman Walter B. Jones, Jr. about H.CON.RES.107 — a bill that deems the use of offensive military force by a President without prior and clear authorization of an Act of Congress an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution.http://youtu.be/g9szk50VQes

Erdogan exploding with verbal hysteria next to silent Al Khatib that he introduced to the crowd as their next leader.
Question: Did he shout in Turkish for his own propaganda or in Arabic for the Syrian refugees?

ŞANLIURFA – Doğan News Agency
It is time for Syrian President al-Assad ‘to get out,’ PM Erdoğan says, criticizing the former’s cruelty while hailing the opposition as Syria’s next rulers
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addresses locals and Syrian refugees in Akçakale on the Syrian border as Moaz al-Khatib, the head of the National Coalition for Opposition Forces and the Syrian Revolution, looks on.
…
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan introduced the head of the Syrian opposition National Coalition to cheering crowds in Akçakale yesterday while calling on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to quit in the strongest terms yet.

MJABALI, it wasn’t my intent to offer a garbled English translation and by so doing misinform readers. I thank you for offering a better understanding of that one paragraph from the Al-Hayat story, and wish you or others had the time to correct the garble for remaining paragraphs.

As I said, and Sami noted, “I post the whole garble, hoping someone can amplify its main points.”

Why not?

Imagine that the aim was to get this story introduced in discussion, which is mostly conducted here in English. You could do a useful job by fixing the garble in a couple more paragraphs of machine-translation, or help discussion along by amplifying the main points as you see them — the significant points that compelled you to post the Al-Hayat link in the first place.

However, I certainly don’t ask you uniquely. There are plenty of Arabic speakers to provide.

(I asked on Twitter for a translation of the headline:

الثورة إذ تستجير بالعلويين

and got back “The Revolution Seeks Refuge Among the Alawites”)

What I got, was the central point that Alawite communities welcome and are influenced by the refugees/displaced in their midst. That their perceptions and mindsets need to be considered, and that the perceptions and mindset are powerfully affected by the regime control of the machinery and spectacle of death — as well as by the displaced in their midst.

In the end, I guess all I could ask of you is to discuss that Al-Hayat story and make it more meaningful.

Similarly, you make good points in regard to secular orientation among Alawites, reasons and historicity, grounded in your perceptions. These are also points you can amplify for discussion, without necessarily giving weight to Observer, whom you disdain.

You offer a unique perspective and set of experiences, Mjabali, and need not be stifled by those whom you see as opponents …

(thanks, SAMI, for chiming in and offering Mjabali an opportunity to respond further)

291. REVENIRE said:
“Head of the MPs? Yes, this is going to hasten …
Traitor Al-Shallal had only one month left to retire and is an inveterate gambler. His pension was a paltry £S 16,000 (16,000.00 SYP = 225.354 USD give or take). He was offered a few dollars and took them while he could. For such a man the price is often cheap.
It is of no consequence.”

ZOO: I did criticize Bashar for the mistakes he did at the start of the uprising, but then I stopped

…

WSS: Here’s context for my mention of the National Dialogue conference chaired by Farouk Al-Sharaa. July of 2011. I can’t recall offhand if ZOO had stopped criticizing ‘mistakes’ by this point or not.

The ‘mistakes’ that cannot now be named by ZOO for some odd reason, were then connected with the ‘security solution.’

…

WSS: ZOO, any comment on the ‘mistakes’ made in that first attempt at dialogue by the regime, mistakes that should not be repeated in the present attempts at dialogue?

…

ZOO: “But the absence of key opposition figures has already led many to question the credibility of the initiative.”

That’s your answer…

Nope. That’s a dodge, and very telling one.

Incidentally, I checked against the SC database of comments and was surprised to find that TARA was right. You have never criticized the President for ‘mistakes’ at any time on SC (at least in those words). At best, back in 2011, long after the ‘dialogue’ failure, you did reproduced stories from the media in which the ‘mistakes’ were cited, without comment.

But let’s look at this, ZOO, shall we? TARA claims you have never criticized the Prez. You claim that you did in the early days criticize some presidential “mistakes.”

In fact, you did not.

Does that surprise you, ZOO? That at no time since you joined discussion here have you uttered a criticism of the President of Syria? Even die-hards who fear everything you fear in Syria have managed to utter such things.

Anyhow. In the context of the first failed ‘national dialogue’ in which the bar to discussion by the LCC and other named (but not invited) personages and groups was The Security Solution — the mistake on the side of the government, in your mind, the only ever mistake made by the President was ‘the absence of key opposition figures.’

Come on, instead of digging old stuff like Mrs Marple and with an elaborate pseudo-intellectual style claim “revelations” or childishly picking on people who disagree with you, try to be an adult and bring some original ideas or else create your own Blog-tribunal : The Bully Scherk where you can bash with the boredom you excel in your enemies.

Go on, dump one more of your presomptuous ‘essay’… Don’t forget to use text formatting gimmicks, it may at least look professional.

Lavrov surprised by the statement of Muaz al-Khatib and called him as not very experienced in politics, and advised him to proceed not from his ambitions but start from the fate of his people!http://www.vesti.ru/only_video.html?vid=475813

201 zoo
Maybe none of my family wear that outfit, but more than half of Syria do, in all of eastern Syria, damascus suberb and in Dar’a that is their outfit,
At least he is checking on the refugees and giving them some hope and lefting their broken spirit that they are not forgotten
Bashar have not even went once to check even on his suportes refugees not even for photo op.

After the greenlight given by Al Khatib to renewed military violence instead of the dialog proposed by the UN envoy, the Syrian army is flexing its muscles.
It has regaining most of Homs and other ‘liberated’ areas. The agitated medias quote ‘analysts’ using again the same cliché of the ‘desperate’ regime killing children, while discreetly mentioning that it is fighting mainly against Al Nusra

Analysts say the surge in airstrikes by Syrian forces are a “desperate” attempt by President Bashar Assad’s regime to reverse rampant gains by rebel fighters, especially in the north of the country.

Overnight, regime forces battled rebels in the opposition stronghold of Harasta northeast of Damascus and bombarded the town of Moadamiyet al-Sham to the southwest and Bait Saham near the airport road to the southeast, the Observatory said.
…
Opposition fighters, mostly from the jihadist Nusra Front, have been closing in on the base since overrunning the nearby town of Maaret alNuman in early October.

And why is it an issue the Turkish language they are inside Turkey the guy will not speak Arabic on Turkish soil even if can speak Arabic , and I’m sure president Alkhatib will address them in Arabic at later time.

Anyway, Erdogan looked ridiculous.. He took it off very quickly in the other photos with Al Khatib.
Do you know if Erdogan spoke in arabic as I know he speaks literary arabic but not Syrian dialect? I guess most of the Syrians refugees don’t understand Turkish.

Did Moaz Al Khatib the ex-preacher addressed the desperate refugees? If not, why did he remain silent? It would be very bad for his image as he would look weak and dominated by Erdogan. Isn’t he the ‘sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people”?

Maybe that after he defended publicly al Nusra terrorists, criticized the USA and insulted Russia, Al Khatib is exclusively relying and dependent on the Moslem Brotherhood duo: Turkey and Qatar.
If that show in Turkey’s refugees camps was a PR to allow him to become better known by the Syrians others than the expats, it looks like Erdogan stole it.

Ha ha Syrian is your rodent al-Khatib the new president of Islamic Emirate of Homs? Does Erdogan let him off his chain long enough to travel to Homs?

In mid-June 2012, a report stated that in March an ill-fated “Islamic Emirate of Homs” was declared by a Lebanese Islamist radical, Al-Boustani, who appointed himself the Emir. Al-Boustani reportedly engaged in kidnapping and murder while claiming to wage jihad against the Syrian government. The “Emirate” lasted only a few weeks. Eventually, a local FSA brigade executed Al-Boustani amidst accusations that the jihadist was not only a traitor to the Syrian opposition but also a Syrian government agent. Al-Boustani had formerly been one of the leaders of Fatah al-Islam.

Zoo
You trying to split hairs all day
As if president Alkhateeb spoke Arabic,annanoced the rebirth of Syria from the libirated areas and Turkish prime minster spoke in Shami dialect and all the of the moons,plants and the stars were all aligned in a perfect order would change your opinion one bit
Again they both traveled thousands of miles to be with the poor refugees , while Bashar did not even travel 2 miles to go to Sebeki or Aljahaz parks to visit ppl sleeping on the ground.

Clinton fainted three weeks ago,had a concussion,and developed blood clot, now she in presbyterian hospital treated with blood thinner..I don’t remember blood thinner is a treatment for concussion,weird story, they must have discovered the clot 3-4 weeks ago, why hospitalization now?why did they call it stomach flu then?

Sorry, but the least you would except from someone who claims to be the legitimate leader of the Syrian people and who supposedly want to save these fellow refugees is to adress them directly in arabic instead of letting an egomaniac foreign ruler hysterically announcing the end of their misery, don’t you think so?
For the sake of the remaining credibility of that Coalition in which Syrians put a lot of expectations, I hope he did, but I have not seen it reported in the news

On Saturday, the government announced that it was in control of Deir Baalba, a suburb of the central city of Homs, after having surrounded the rebel-held town about a month ago. Opposition groups, whose reports cannot be verified, said government forces committed a massacre in the battle for the town.

Walid Faris, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Council of Homs, said by telephone that Deir Baalba is surrounded by villages populated by members of the Alawite sect of President Bashar Assad. During the army counteroffensive, it was hit heavily by artillery shells and mortar rounds, he said, and the rebel Free Syrian Army managed to clear a small evacuation route to get most civilians out of the conflict zone.

But some remained. As government troops moved back into Deir Baalba, Faris said, 150 to 180 people were rounded up and taken to a petrochemical university, where they were executed. Their bodies and houses were burned before dawn, he said. Other reports put the death toll higher, at 220, including women and children.

If we remain on the current course, future historians are likely to record the slaughter of innocent Syrians, and the resulting harm done to America’s national interests and moral standing, as a shameful failure of U.S. leadership and one of the darker chapters in our history. That should unsettle us all as we pray for peace and goodwill this holiday season.

Zoo
Well for such high standees, I expect you to ask the same if not more of Bashar toward refugees 2 miles from his house
Or even going once on TV and addressing the nation or even his supporters directly about the war or anything.
he has never done that for last 12 years.

According to the opposition, that includes you I suppose, Bashar al Assad is no more the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, so I guess you can’t ask him much anymore.
Adress your complaints to your ‘sole representative” : Moaz Al Khatib.

No, not true at all. Assad’s chances of staying alive in Syria are low and getting lower. He could live in exile, but he chose against that option. Hillary probably has another decade to live, though to do that she should find a less stressful line of work.

Glad you finally recognize that Assad is no longer a representative of the Syrian people. He is, at most, a representative of the Alawites, but even the Alawites are coming to detest him. They’re beginning to realize what a big failure he has been. Sooner or later he’s going to get deposed. Best get with the program now. He has committed too many crimes to negotiate with.

See these shows need to end, what message is that: The President has met with the national soccer team, what relevance has that? I am thankful our media is not showing me the agenda of my chancelor Angela Merkel on state owned tv. Dictators have their kind of information policies, I understand that, the meet and greet shows make most of their day, eventually interrupted by kissing small innocent babys. I was once present when Al Wahash had such a greeting show in the old city at his favorite restaurant, all those to be greeted were carefuly choosen and brought in by buses, so they can meet up with their saviour in front of the restaurant. Well you must be a smart men to believe all that has importance, its at the end a big lie, and I do believe he himself is smart enough to know its a big lie.

Syria’s descent into hell
By John McCain, Joseph I. Lieberman and and Lindsey O. Graham

“The United States must rally our allies to channel assistance to the newly established Syrian opposition council for distribution in the rebel-held areas. We must provide weapons and other lethal assistance to the opposition military command. And we must impose a no-fly zone in some areas of Syria, to include using the U.S. Patriot missile batteries en route to Turkey, to protect people in northern Syria from Assad’s aerial attacks.”

In Syria, What’s Left Behind?
Posted by Rania Abouzeid
“There’s a saying in Arabic that we offer to console in times of material loss: “Kuloo be yit’awad”—Everything can be compensated and replaced. But photos are more than things; a child’s toys are more than things, political ideologies mean a way of life not just an idea on paper, and apartment doors that have been kicked in reflect more than just the quality of the lock.”

The Long View: We need to understand our history better: why did Arabs disappear from ‘our’ science?

“Arabic culture, according to Iraqi-born journalist and writer Walid al-Kobeissi, is founded upon three pillars: Arab nationalism, Islam and the Arabic language. If one of these pillars gives way, the culture collapses.”

From our friends at Al Arabiya (they are a little late to report news of beheadings carried out by the FSA animals because this has been going on since Day 1 of the “peaceful revolution” but better late than never I say):

A nun sounded the alarm that the Syrian conflict was becoming sectarian when she said that a Christian man was beheaded by Syrian rebels in the northern town of Ras al-Ayn on the Turkish border, and his body was fed to dogs, a British newspaper reported Monday.

Sister Agnes-Mariam de la Croix speaking from her sanctuary in Lebanon said the newlywed taxi driver, Andrei Arbashe, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that the rebels fighting against beleaguered President Bashar al-Assad were behaving like bandits, The Daily Mail reported.

The 38-year-old Arbashe, who was soon to be a father, was found headless by the side of the road, surrounded by hungry dogs, Sister Agnes-Miriam, who is mother superior of the Monastery of St James the Mutilated, added.

“His only crime was his brother criticized the rebels, accused them of acting like bandits, which is what they are.”

Mid-December, the newly formed Syrian National Coalition obtained wide recognition including from the United States and the European Union. France and British were one of the earliest countries from the Western world that recognized the coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people in November.

But Western powers until now are hesitant on whether to supply the opposition fighters with weapons. Western support so far has been in terms of non-lethal military equipment.

Meanwhile, the 60-year-old nun condemned Britain and the West for supporting anti-Assad fighters in spite of growing evidence showing human rights violations committed by them. She listed murder, kidnapping, rape and robbery as rising crimes.

“The free and democratic world is supporting extremists,” Sister Agnes-Miriam said from her sanctuary in Lebanon. “They want to impose Sharia Law and create an Islamic state in Syria.”

In December, Washington blacklisted the opposition al-Nusra Front group, saying it was linked to al-Qaeda. U.S. officials fear that groups such as al-Nusra Front to hijack the 21-month Syrian uprising. The Syrian conflict killed more than 45,000 people.

Christians in Syria, who many of them still support Assad regime, were previously given concessions by the Syrian regime to appease them. The Christians, a minority , also skeptical over regime change in the country as they fear the rise of Islamists.

I would be very careful to believe what sister Agnes-Mariam de la Croix is stating, in my opinion she is on a crusade for her saviour. I wouldnt be surprise to find out that she like many other sisters has regular contacts with Bashars mother.

“Christian Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped and beheaded by rebel fighters in northern town of Ras Al-Ayn on the Turkish border
News came as pro-government forces celebrated their victory against rebels near Aleppo Airport”

You know as well as I do it isn’t the first time this has happened. What kind of animals behead people? These are your freedom fighters?

The world doesn’t give two f0*Ks about Syria and if it did the US Marines would be helping the SAAF drop barrel bombs on these dogs. Instead, the US is helping whacked-out Salafist terrorists murder civilians. These FSA monsters would, and if given the chance, turn their guns on the US in two seconds flat. The only thing these killers understand is death.

The world should be thanking Assad for bringing all these monsters to one country: easier to kill them all.

Well, they are obviously very silent when it comes to decades of Assad terror and torture. Not a very pleasant christian behaviour, but obviously the Catholic church has an appetite for appeasement if we take Francos rule and Pinochets terrorregime in context, both were highly protected and supported by the Catholic church at their time.

I understand that personal contacts and affiliations help to improve the situations for Christians, but intense contacts and receivement of funds directly from the family of the dictator, or being silent in front of the terror committed by this regime is something else.

Unprecedented in scale crisis, backed by the American ruling elite has reached a cynical by barbarism and disregard for international law, a level equal to that not been the case for the entire series of invasions and wars that the U.S. elite is constantly after the Second World War.

Failure to comply with international law and the Charter of the United Nations leads to the fact that U.S. officials are increasingly not reckon with the rules of the establishment of diplomatic relations between sovereign states, which our civilization has developed over the past few centuries. Their commitment to the law of the jungle approved and adopts their Western vassals, most of whom are ardent Sarkozy, Fabius, Hollande and Juppe.

This situation continues to deteriorate in the past several years, so that no opponent of imperialism can not ignore it, forced Syria to strengthen the sovereign state power, of course, this power is not perfect and not without its flaws, but it allowed her to stay and remain today the only all the Arab countries of the Middle East a truly independent secular country capable of resisting the Euro-Atlantic and the Zionist vandalism, species with the reaction of radical Islam.

Rejecting Vassalization and the destruction of their country, the anti-imperialist government of the Syrian Arab Republic and the people, who for the most part actively supports it, are now bitter struggle and fiercely resist foreign military aggression. The latter was developed and prepared in advance by U.S. intelligence agencies and is the Western and Zionist barbarians with mercenaries from jihadists Wahhabi and Salafi takfiristov.

This aggression role that militants “free Syria” army, is secondary to the terrorist groups were sent from abroad. They are merely auxiliary force and serve to create an illusion to give local color external aggression and serve Syrian alibi.

Despite the severity of the Euro-Atlantic intervention and inhumanity of the military aggression, funded by billions of dollars from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, despite the betrayal and remunerated occupation of Syrian territory by Israel, which claims to be the annexation of the Golan Heights, the Syrians are under legal government still stood at democratization of society and the struggle for independence, sovereignty, civil law and reject the sectarian civil war.

We all see that more than two years in Syria is a sequential formation of people’s power. In contrast to what is happening in France, as well as in other countries – Evrodiktatury vassals whose financial oligarchy destroying the state apparatus, democracy and people’s power, condemning them to social regression, which they always get worse.

In his speech, delivered March 30, 2011 in the National Assembly, President Bashar al-Assad announced reforms that after that he always carried in practice, in spite of the obstacles that inevitably multiplies the military situation in this particularly complex area of ​​democratic freedoms.

The Catholic nuns have nothing to complain about. As Juergen said, they were silent about the regime’s brutality. They have no right to speak.

@ Citizen

The regime’s army at this point is probably out-numbered by the FSA. On paper they havve 400000 troops. In reality, most of soldiers have either defected, or are planning to defect. The regime’s soldiers have no morale. They are incapable of sustaining any major offensive.

The regime continues to lose ground everywhere. Look at where the fighting is taking place. It has spread to the central provinces of Hama and Raqqa. In the meantime defections are accelerating again.

I’m always amused when regime supporters start talking about international law. It’s not as if the regime follows international law so why should its enemies follow them?

The regime and its supporters have been brutal and violent for 40 years. Now it is their turn to face brutality and violence. Once again, what comes around, goes around.

“Extremely loyal to their boss…”, that alone is an interessting quote, very sound if we talk about an militia instead of an army.

I would be very cautious about such numbers, I think the world has seen many delusional dictators who always thought they were still widely supported, well history has proven things can get quite fast, especially when folks see more clearly that the ride is ending. And as I have said earlier, everyone likes to be in the winning team.

The major problem with ZOO is that he assumes that the regime is fully legitimate and that any dissent is by definition illegitimate.
The regime has lost legitimacy a long time ago.
First the current President assumed power when the constitution would not allow it. It was amended by a rubber stamp majlis without discussion. Second he was the only candidate of the Baath party, no other candidates were accepted, third the people voted yea or nay on his candidacy without any other contestants.
Fourthly, he had the constitution changed recently without any discussion from the opposition and we do not have any figures on the percent of participation and the approval of 51% was fake to say the least.
The abrogation of the state of emergency has remained without effect and the use of force is illegitimate to say the least.

The so called internal opposition has absolutely no weight and the freedoms and guarantees are non existent.

These only scratch the surface of the mafiosi nature of the state.

The regime is a criminal one to the core.

WSS when I asked Majbali whether the Alawis have become secular, I did not mean that they were abandoning any religious belief. I know that the sect is not particularly religious and is quite liberal in its outlook and beliefs, my question was as to whether they have stopped thinking as a sect. You can be like me a liberal one and an atheist and still think as a Sunni sect in your feelings and your allegiances. These are emotionally binding sentiments that take discipline to abandon.

I do feel for the Alawis if they were persecuted before and I do feel for the Sunnis in their struggle for freedom but I also recognize the need for a transcendent identity to emerge to save us from this tribalism even if each of us is somewhat victim of its trappings.

Cheers and justice for Hamza and let the illegitimate regimes disappear from the face of the earth

With the growing presence of radical Islamists affiliated with al-Qaida in Syria, fear and apprehension have crept up among the moderate Syrians, sending chills down their spines about the vague and uncertain future of their country.

As the crisis in the country is nearing to enter its third year, its complications and repercussions are also growing larger; especially now that the armed rebels’ ranks are overwhelmed with radicals from al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of al-Qaida terror network in Iraq.

Even the international community, who has for long blamed the Syrian administration for the bulk of the violence in Syria, admitted now the threats of al-Qaida-linked groups in Syria. The US branded al-Nusra Front last week as a terror network, after the group has claimed responsibility for almost all explosions that rocked the government and army forces’ installations over the past year.
…
Some other Syrians firmly believe that a more serious chaos would be the title of a post-Assad era in case he decided to go.

Resentment among the Damascenes has also become on the upswing with daily reports about robbery and kidnapping.

Some believe that the armed militias are lurking for wealthy Syrians for ransoms, as they are running short of funds to buy weapons and ammunition. Others suggest that gangs and thieves are capitalizing on the current chaos to make money by kidnapping rich Damascenes to demand ransom; while some people think that some pro- government armed militias are also carrying out some kidnappings to tarnish the opposition.

“Some people have become traumatized by the losses of loved ones,” Asma said, trying to gather her composure and wipe away tears.

She said a relative of hers had been kidnapped and the captors called his family two days after his disappearance for ransom. “We paid one million Syrian pound and he didn’t show up,” she said while choking back tears.

“Two years ago,” she said, “we didn’t even think or imagine that something like this would ever happen in Syria … we are in a real nightmare.”

With the growing complicity of the crisis, Syrian officials still confirm that Assad still keeps a tight rein on the country and downplay rebels’ accounts of achieving gains on ground.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad told the BBC recently that “The government is strong. The Syrian army is strong, and the Syrian people are still rallying behind President Assad. That’s why President Assad and the political system are still surviving and they will still survive.

Erdogan who supposedly speaks fluently Arabic ( because of his islamic upbringing) adresses the Syrian refugees in Turkish with simultaneous translation.
Al Khatib remained silent like a carp, and at the end Erdogan pulls him to kiss him: The Turkish “allegeance” of Al Khatib..

AMMAN,(Reuters) – Heavy fighting raged on the outskirts of Damascus on Monday as elite troops backed by tanks tried to recapture a strategic suburb from rebels in one of the largest military operations in that district in months, opposition activists said.

Five people, including one child, died from army rocket fire that hit Daraya, the activists said. Daraya is one of a series of interconnected Sunni Muslim suburbs that ring Syria’s capital and have been at the forefront of the 21-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

“This is the biggest attack on Daraya in two months. An armoured column is trying to advance but it being held (back) by the Free Syrian Army,” said Abu Kinan, an opposition activist in the area, referring to a rebel group.

He said that tens of thousands of civilians had fled Daraya during weeks of government assault but that 5,000 remained, along with hundreds of rebels. Daraya is located near the main southern highway leading to the Jordanian border 85 kms (50 miles) to the south.

Activists said the military is trying to push back rebels who have been slowly advancing from the outskirts of Damascus to within striking distance of central districts inhabited by Assad’s Alawite minority sect.

Clinton was forced to cancel Dec. 20 testimony before Congress about a scathing report into the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The report found that serious failures of leadership and management in two State Department bureaus were to blame for insufficient security at the facility. Clinton took responsibility for the incident before the report was released, but she was not blamed.

Some conservative commentators suggested Clinton was faking the seriousness of her illness and concussion to avoid testifying, although State Department officials vehemently denied that was the case.

Zoo,the sectarian vampire,with very high MI, said
“The Damascus suburbs ‘liberation’ from the rebel in progress?”
Is failure of Assad thugs , is it progress?your lack of intelligence is clear, and your high MI is due to high S

The battles around Idlib are suggesting a major defeat of Assad thugs.

Safawi regime is surprised by the events in Iraq, and Maliki is surprised too,

This isn’t from SANA but from the British press. Every British man would take up arms against the Salafists and wipe them off the face of the planet for doing this. Every American man would bring these animals to justice.

This isn’t a revolution. This is sectarian murder. This is genocide. This is a war crime.

The only things protecting minorities from wholesale slaughter is Assad and the Syrian Arab Army.

Syrian rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to dogs, according to a nun who says the West is ignoring atrocities
committed by Islamic extremists.

The nun said taxi driver Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that fighters against the ruling regime behaved like bandits.

She said his headless corpse was found by the side of the road, surrounded by hungry dogs. He had recently married and was soon to be a father.

Sister Agnes-Mariam de la Croix said: ‘His only crime was his brother criticised the rebels, accused them of acting like bandits, which is what they are.’

There have been a growing number of accounts of atrocities carried out by rogue elements of the Syrian Free Army, which opposes dictator Bashar al-Assad and is recognised by Britain and the West as the legitimate leadership.

Sister Agnes-Miriam, mother superior of the Monastery of St James the Mutilated, has condemned Britain and the west for supporting the rebels despite growing evidence of human rights abuses. Murder, kidnapping, rape and robbery are becoming commonplace, she says.

‘The free and democratic world is supporting extremists,’ Sister Agnes-Miriam said from her sanctuary in Lebanon. ‘They want to impose Sharia Law and create an Islamic state in Syria.’

The 60-year-old Carmelite nun claims the west has turned a blind eye to growing evidence of a ‘fifth column’ of fanatics within the rag-tag ranks that make up the Free Syrian Army that they back to oust Assad.

One of the most effective fighting forces is the Jabat Al-Nusra, which has an ideology similar to Al Qaeda.

‘The uprising has been hijacked by Islamist mercenaries who are more interested in fighting a holy war than in changing the government,’ she said.

‘It has turned into a sectarian conflict. One in which Christians are paying a high price.’

The rebel attacked the northern town of Ras Al-Ayn, on the Turkish border, last month. The fighters entered the Christian quarter, ordering civilians to leave and leaving their homes.

‘More than 200 families were driven out in the night,’ Sister Agnes-Miriam says. ‘People are afraid. Everywhere the deaths squads stop civilians, abduct them and ask for ransom, sometimes they kill them.’

Militants wearing black bandanas of Al Qaeda recently laid siege to the Monastery of St James the Mutilated, located between Damascus and Homs, for two days in an attempt to prevent Christmas celebrations, the nun claims.

An estimated 300,000 Christians have been displaced in the conflict, with 80,000 forced out of the Homs region alone, she claims.

Many have fled abroad raising fears that Syria’s Christian community may vanish – like others across Middle East, the birthplace of Christianity.

Al Assad, a member of the Alawite Muslim sect, claims only his regime can protect Syria’s minorities from domination from the Sunni Muslims majority.

Meanwhile the fighting continues to rage with government forces retaking control of a key district in the city of Homs yesterday.

The latest violence comes after United Nations peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned of ‘hell’ for Syria if no political solution could be found.

Russia has stated the conflict is becoming increasingly militarised and sectarian and risks bringing chaos to the whole region.

Some 44,000 people have been killed since the uprising against the Al Assad regime began in March 2011.

ZOO if we cannot transcend the sects and the divisions then split.
Majbali and I can do this but you cannot even come close to the intellectual level of Majbali. For you I am not a human and is illegitimate as I question the very legitimacy of your regime.

Your regime is illegitmate and your defense of the regime is illegitmate and your pretzels of arguments and quotes from the web to support your preconceived notion of justice and equity are also illegitimate.

A minimum of acceptance of the role of a leader by a community is what confers legitimacy and this legitimacy rests foremost on trutsworthiness something that your mind is incapable of comprehending.

Please skip my posts for you have not presented a single valid argument. Cut and paste is garbage that follows the regime’s garbage and will join the dustbin of history.

what will be said of the 42 years of Ghaddafi to talk about or that of Saddam for that matter? it will be similar to what Freddo and all the despots of the region will go down in history as nothing more than awful memories.

.. يا رب ليكن عام ٢٠١٣ عام انتصار الثورة وسحق النظام وعودة السوريين اللاجئين والنازحين والمغتربين .. وتاسيس الأمن والاستقرار لسوريا الحبيبة .. ليكن ٢٠١٣ عامك يا سوريا .. عامك أيتها الثورة المباركة المنتصرة باذن الله وإرادة أحرار وثوار سوريا ..
Certainly 2013 will be the year we get rid of this animalistic brutal regime,bloody sectarian lawless regime, in 2013 we will see the light of freedom and justice shining over the plains and moutains of Syria, happiness and security for all Syrian,we need to rebuild Syria and advance it to the 21st century,the new Syria will have the support of other Arab countries, a friend of Turkey,working togather to the betterment of all Syrians and ME people,and justice for all.
This is the greates revolution written by the blood of so many young men and women.

• Syrian army has dealt strong “successful” blows to the armed rebels in several areas across Syria.
• Al-Watan daily said the army’s “qualitative” operations destroyed the armed militia’s hideouts.
• The army advanced in the eastern al-Ghouta, Douma and Daraya suburbs of Damascus.

DAMASCUS, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) — The Syrian army has dealt strong “successful” blows to the armed rebels in several areas across Syria, killing hundreds of them since last week, a pro-government daily said Sunday.

“While some pro-opposition Western countries were poising for the downfall of Syria between the 20th and 25th of the current month, relying on reports from the so-called opposition, the Syrian army had big blows to the armed rebels in several parts of Syria, all of which were successful and resulted in hundreds of deaths among the terrorists since last Thursday,” al-Watan daily said.

The daily, a mouthpiece of the Syrian government, said its information were “documented” and obtained from several provinces. It said the army’s “qualitative” operations destroyed the armed militia’s hideouts, operation centers and infrastructure from the southern province of Daraa to the northwestern Idlib province, the eastern Deir al-Zour province and the outskirts of Aleppo province.

It said the army’s wide-scale operations were coupled with raid campaigns in several districts of the capital Damascus, during which many of the rebels were detained.

The army advanced in the eastern al-Ghouta, Douma and Daraya suburbs of Damascus, the paper said, adding that Daraya still had some rebels’ pockets and the army has imposed “suffocating” siege around the area.

Meanwhile, the paper said the road to the international airport of Damascus is “a hundred percent safe,” adding that commercial flights by the Syrian airlines are ongoing.

In the northern province of Aleppo, the paper said, the army advanced forward into the eastern part of the Aleppo city and wrested back control over the Transportation Directorate. It said the troops were also working to secure the surroundings of the airport of Aleppo, the military airbase of Nairab and the Raqaa- Aleppo road.

After the armed groups’ failed attempts to control any of the military targets they attacked and besieged, the paper said, they fired for the second time at the international airport of Aleppo with rockets from the nearby al-Sfaira town.

The paper added that the Syrian air forces have pinpointed the rocket launchers’ locations and flattened them.

In the central province of Homs, the army regained full control over the Deir Balba town and attacked rebels in the countryside of the central province of Hama, according to al-Watan.

On the opposition side, activists reported Sunday airstrikes and ground shelling on several hotspots nationwide.

242.pathetic not consist Balkanian mission pilot!
Why shy away from the answer? Have you the crushing victory on the Syrian Arab army in order to consider the leader Bashar al-Assad for asylum country like Venezuela? When two years passes and the Syrian regime is still intact and when taking into account the size of the attack Western and Zionist and radical Islamic compound at which you must admit strength and the greatness of this army! Every time you will write about the asylum countries, i’ll laugh on you! You are weaker than a verified victory!

Says who? The Syrian government is represented in all the institutions of the UN, and its has diplomatic relation with most countries in the world.
Please tell me in which UN institution the ‘sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people” is represented?
None.
Their alleged “sole legitimacy” is a private matter limited to the US, a few other Arab and Western countries and people like you. It has zero legality in the international politics.

As long as there is no alternative government recognized officially by the UN and the international community, the sole legitimate government of Syria is the current government under the presidency of Bashar al Assad, whether you like it or not.

Illegitimate says the Syrian people. They have said many times over and over not only over the last 2 years but over the last 50 years many of whom voted with the feet and many of whom refused to die for the mafiosi state and many more refused to serve and many more are fighting a liberation war.

Says who my foot, Your regime and your posts are illegitimate.
Representation at the UN indeed to confer legitimacy.

“Illegitimate says the Syrian people.” No, Observer the Syrian people never said that. And terrorist rats with guns won’t ever force the issue. Keep dreaming of victory because it will be as close as you Salafist apes will ever come.

…Were Syria and others to file an Application for an Advisory Opinion with the ICJ few in the international legal community have much doubt that targeting civilians economically and attempting to destroy the Syrian economy — for no other purpose than to ignite rebellion — would be considered a violation of international law at the International Court of Justice.
….
The ICJ is made up of 15 jurists from different countries. No two judges at any given time may be from the same country. The court’s composition is static but generally includes jurists from a variety of cultures. Among the Principles, Standards and Rules of international law that Syria may well argue to the World Court, may include but not be limited to, the following:

The US led sanctions violate international humanitarian law due to the negative health effects of the sanctions on the civilian population of Syria. This renders the sanctions illegal under international customary law and the UN Charter for their disproportionate damage caused to Syria’s civilian population;

The US led severe sanctions regime constitutes an illegitimate form of collective punishment of the weakest and poorest members of society, the infants, the children, the chronically ill, and the elderly;

The US, France and the UK, as well as their allies, have violated the UN Charter by their imposition of severe economic sanctions and threats of military force. The United States, Israel, and some of their allies, regularly threaten Damascus with the “option” of a military strike. The ICJ has ruled previously that “A threat or use of force is contrary to Article 2, paragraph 4, of the UN Charter and fails to meet all the requirements of Article 51, is therefore unlawful”. It has further ruled that “A threat of use of force must be compatible with the requirements of the international law applicable in armed conflict, particularly those of the principles and rules of humanitarian law, as well as with specific obligations under treaties and other undertakings which expressly deal with threats to members of the United Nations.”

Moreover, unilateral US sanctions, without the imprimatur of the United Nations are blatantly illegal under International Law because they are in fact multilateral and impose penalties on any country which opposes the sanctions or does not choose to participate in them;

The US led sanctions amount to an Act of War given their effects including hardships on the general public and that Syria therefore has a legal right to Self-Defense.

The US led sanctions, given their design and intent, constitute acts of aggression against Syria in violation of Article 2 (4) of the UN charter.

You are the illegitimate one. You don’t even live in Syria and you are a citizen of another country.

You are certainly as entitled to speak for the “Syrian People’ as Madonna for the Eskimos.

Let Moaz al Khatib have the guts to accept elections in Syria, then we will know who the Syrian people consider illegitimate. But the confused ex-preacher is too afraid that he’ll be dumped back to join Ghaliun, Khaddam,Tlass and company in Paris. Maybe Baba Erdogan will be kind enough to take him under his wings, if he learns turkish.
Maybe you should to, you’ll be invaluable to them.

As Assad Quakes on His Throne, Is Iran Ready to Deal?
Walter Russell Meadhttp://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/12/30/time-for-iran-to-make-a-deal/
December 30, 2012
….
Yet despite the appearance of rebel momentum in Syria, it is still too early to be certain that Assad is on his way out. The rebels have problems of their own, and the longer the war the more opportunities for divisions, brutality, corruption and incompetence to take their toll on the fragile rebel coalition and its civilian support. It is only when and if all hope disappears in Iran that either Assad or his political structure can survive that the real policy debates will start.

Hey Zoo, why did Assad keep saying for years and years that the sanctions are not hurting Syria? Is he a liar or just an idiot that doesn’t know better? I suspect the latter based on his January 2011 interview where he predicted that the Arab Spring would never come to Syria.

Why did Assad keep sending Jihadists to Iraq and supporting the jihadists Hamas? It seems that Assad really likes them. So what are you complaining about now that they are fighting against you? You did not say anything for years as Assad was formenting religious intolerance and now you complain about it. There is only one person to blame, Assad.

Forget about it. There are no deals to be made. This is a fight to the death that Assad started and it will end when he is wiped out no matter how many years it takes. There is no outside force that can enforce a deal on the ground even if politicians outside Syria reach one. So prepare to fight to the death. You know the jihadists are looking forward to martyrdom and there is a unlimited number of them that can be recruited from the 1.4 billion Muslims in the world.

Bashar was speaking about his own country, not another country. Shouldn’t a ruler know what was going on in his country? How stupid can you be to say that such a momentous thing as the Arab Spring was not happening in Syria one month before it happened? He just has no clue about HIS OWN country.

Revenire,

Assad is responsible for Syria as he was the leader of that country for 11 years before the revolution. Eleven years in which he did nothing to advance Syria or make significant democratic reforms. Of course what is happening in Syria is his fault. He is the leader of Syria and his stubbornness and stupidity have brought Syria to its knees.

February 2012: The U.S. State Department has called President Asad a “dead man walking.” Israel’s defense minister has insisted that Asad will fall in a matter of weeks.

July 2012: Syrian President Bashar Assad’s use of helicopter gunships to counter a civil uprising will prove to be “a nail in Assad’s coffin,” U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Sunday at the outset of a five-day Mideast tour.

Now these ape-like idiots – the MOST powerful nation on Earth LOL – just say “soon” and soon could mean tomorrow or in 2022 or never.

Someone should put together a small pdf of statements predicting Assad’s fall. I am sure it would be a top seller on the comedy circuit.

The Kafranbel artists are world renowned for their cleverness and sage-like wisdom and could certainly rise to the occasion. They can take photos in front of buildings the FSA blew up and say “Assad’s army” did it (except Assad has no army). I think there are a few here who can get a message to our Kafranbel boys and they can produce something by tomorrow for the Internet.

On a similar topic, I overheard a man at a market last week saying he wanted Asma murdered because of her “Western” clothing. I kid you not friends – he was muttering to himself something about Asam’s fashions being haraam. He had a long beard, like Santa Claus, but no mustache and he smelled as if he had not bathed recently or had been sleeping in a barn with livestock. Go figure.

It is quite simple. The people of the US, France and Israel are doing quite well while Syria is drowning due to its stupid leader Assad. You can point fingers at other countries as much as you want, but Obama being wrong did not result in Chicago being trashed like Aleppo and Damascus are being trashed. It did not lead to the economy disappearing. It did not lead to tens of thousands of deaths and sectarian violence. You need a special idiot like Assad who had 11 years to make things better in order to bring about this colossus failure.

And you need blind people to still support him given the harm he has done. People like you only learn the hard way, and the jihadists which you supported and advanced for years will teach you a harsh lesson. Assad needs to leave now for the sake of Syria and its people. But please, fight to the death, let’s see how that works out for you. You know the jihadists are looking forward to it.

Syria’s regime is a failure. Any government that does this to its country does not deserve the title of “government.” As I’ve said before, even PAKISTAN’S government is better than Syria’s.

If the regime wants a fight to the death, then a fight to the death it will be.

The regime does NOT follow international law. Given this, why should its enemies follow international law? What comes around, goes around.

Bashar Assad does not follow anyone’s advice on international justice. The regime is blind and deaf to anything except violence. The regime is nothing more than a mad dog that needs to be shot and killed.

“Rebels have seized oil fields and launched other attacks on economic lifelines to try to starve the Syrian government of funds. Syrian Prime Minister Wael Halqi told lawmakers Monday that such attacks, combined with “unfair economic sanctions” imposed by the West, had triggered a diesel and gas crisis, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.”

It is winter,cold, and lack of gas to cook,and to heat their houses is hurting people in Damascus, electricity is available only six hours a day, today gas lines are damaged,there will be no gas in Damascus soon,

“It is winter,cold, and lack of gas to cook,and to heat their houses is hurting people in Damascus, electricity is available only six hours a day, today gas lines are damaged,there will be no gas in Damascus soon”
It is particularly nauseating to hear complaints about gas and electricity from people who supported economic sanctions and advocated suffocating supplies of gas ans electricity, it is like a guy who killed his parents then asked the court for
mercy because he is now an orphan.
happy new year to a country that was betrayed by many and to millions of Syrians who suffered enough and deserve a break.

“It is winter,cold, and lack of gas to cook,and to heat their houses is hurting people in Damascus, electricity is available only six hours a day, today gas lines are damaged,there will be no gas in Damascus soon”
It is particularly nauseating to hear complaints about gas and electricity from people who supported economic sanctions and advocated suffocating supplies of gas ans electricity, it is like a guy who killed his parents then asked the court for
mercy because he is now an orphan.
happy new year to a country that was betrayed by many and to millions of Syrians who suffered enough and deserve a break.

Tara
Happy new year,
I am sure Assad will not last long anymore, things are pretty bad, If Assad loves Syria he would have left more than a year ago, but this murderous evil beast,Bashar Assad, he chose to destroy Syria,with Iran and Russia help, but we will build it,better than before.
Brahimi must quit,he failed to come with a solution that Syrian will agree on, after over 100,000 martyrs,after complete destruction of Syria,after two years of suffering, we deserve better,and Syria deserve better future,with freedom,justice and modified democracy

For those who believe in secularism,they must understand, secularism must never depend on sectarianism.

Ghufran
It was your regime that you support, and supported by your relative who are officers in his murderous regime that should be blamed for the misery of Syrian people, you can not stand people asking for freedom, you insist on killing the Syrian, but you would not support freedom or dignity, you should be full of shame, but your morality is so low,and non existance that you blame free Syrians,this is criminal personality and your relative will pay for supporting this evil regime.

“Look at the determination on the face of the FSA fighters and compare it with the hollow yet sinister looks of the traitors.”

Is Tara is really Lawrence of Arabia?

“The people of the US, France and Israel are doing quite well while Syria is drowning due to its stupid leader Assad.”

@AIG nah, those nation’s people are not doing well at all. Each of those nations has a stupid leader and many in all three countries want new leaders. Thus far, none of them have taken guns and started shooting innocent policemen, soldiers and civilians to demand change.

“It is winter,cold, and lack of gas to cook,and to heat their houses is hurting people in Damascus, electricity is available only six hours a day, today gas lines are damaged,there will be no gas in Damascus soon,”

@MAJEDKHALDOUN Someone I know has an eating establishment in Damascus. It is open for business despite the war.

If your terrorist friends had not brought on this war at least 45,000 Syrians would be alive today.

“VISITOR said:
I tend to agree with AIG.
Come on guys. Zoo, Revenire (aka Ali), Citizen, Ghufran and few others are just plain brainless.
Since I began reading this blog, they have been going in circles and offering nothing but the stupidest of all arguments.
It takes a lot of patience to keep up with such a bunch of bone heads!!
They made this site so dull. I am not sure it is worth wasting one’s time reading their trash.”

So democratic. You will go far in New Syria. Wishing only the terrorist side told and trying to stop truth from being spread. Typical and why you will never win.

A peaceful, free, just and Happy New Year to all. I hope and pray it is a year of healing and recovery for the suffering. I hope their tears and sorrows are wiped away and victorious tears of joy come in their place.

My prediction for the regime’s fall passed by a couple of days ago (27th). It was an arbitrary date I put out there a couple of weeks ago. It was partly based on Sh. Yaqoubi’s prediction on Norwegian Tv that the regime would probably fall in 2-3 months.

Shortly after posting the prediction I went back to the Norwegian Tv clip and found it was aired on 4th October. So technically speaking 3 months would be complete on 4th January. On top of that give or take a week or two.

At the time of prediction I said that if Assad makes it to the new year I give him no more than two weeks.

In the new Syria, brainless idiot supporters, like the ones I mentioned in the previous comment (you included of course) of brainless thugs will have no rights whatsoever. In fact, they will be purged to the dustbin along with their idol.

The reason for that is very simple. New Syria will be made up of brainfull peope only. While brainless worshipers of idol have to remain with that which they cannot live without. It is hard for you to understand and we do not expect you to do so. But it is all connected to the simple motto that you guys keep nauseating: lov-u-4ever-die-without-u.

So, we will give you your eternal love and prevent you from dying without it.

“Reve, you are the guy who once pretended to be Persian on SC then disappeared for a while.”

He disappeared because his parents sent him to one of those military prep schools to “straighten him out.” He’s back on SC because he ran away and he’s living with a girl named Meredith in the East Village who’s a beauty school dropout. During the day they go to Times Square and panhandle and fuck when no one’s looking. At night when she’s stoned, he gets on the Internet on her laptop and pretends to be a hardcore Assadist.

Sorry , I thought we see and hear so many horrible things, so I wanted to post something lighter. This video is running allover arabic newssights. I think they are Yemenite. I have no clue why the camel had to be carried, may be it was sick or the ghut those guys had was pretty strong.

Who is Maaz Khatib this? Personaly he was not known to the Syrians before the start of the Western colored program ! There are thousands of intellectuals in Syria highest affair and more ability than this American drummer!!! There is nothing wrong for Maaz to be a school helper in a popular neighborhood in Damascus, and not more than!

Irony: the West advocates multi-culturalism but supports militants who are intent on destroying multi-cultural Syria.
If the world is really going to tackle the roots of international terrorism and religion extremism, then there must be focus on Saudi Arabia

2013 will see Iranian influence in the Middle East continue a decline that began with the Arab upheavals of 2011. Iran’s two major allies in the Arab world are Syria and Lebanon. In Lebanon, Iran arms the Shiite party-militia Hizbullah, and does so overland through Iraq and Syria. Since Israel controls the Mediterranean off Lebanon and can, when it wants to, control Lebanese air space, the land corridor for Iranian supplies to Hizbullah is key to the latter’s ability to confront Israeli expansionism into Lebanese territory.

Hizbullah could well have its Iranian lifeline cut. Its secretary-general, Hassan Nasrullah, has come out strongly in favor of the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, because both of them are Iranian clients. If Syria falls to the Sunni Arab revolutionaries, the latter will have a grudge toward both Iran and Hizbullah for supporting the Baath government, and will likely cut the latter off from resupply through Syrian territory. Instead, Syrian support will go to the Sunnis of Beirut, Sidon, Tripoli, Akkar and the Biqa Valley.
…
A new, Sunni coalition in the Levant would group Lebanese Sunnis with Palestinians (whether PLO or Hamas); would rule Damascus and Cairo; and might well given extraordinary support to the Palestinians, especially to Hamas (an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood itself). It may be that not Sidon but Khan Yunis is the greater security threat to Israel in the new Middle East that is forming before our eyes. Sunni activists may well be much more committed to giving practical help to the PLO and Hamas than was al-Assad, who merely paid lip service to the plight of the Palestinians.

A Sunni, and possibly Muslim Brotherhood Syria could thus emerge as a major player, in Arab-Israeli affairs but also in northern Iraq. And, the salience of the Jordanian monarchy is reduced in case things develop in this direction.

A Sunni-dominated Levant would not necessarily be hostile to the US, though it is likely to bear some grudges for US inaction in Syria. But it would likely be severely hostile to Israel. A galvanized Syrian population and a revolutionary government, plus their support for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, could introduce dangerous new frictions, at a time when the Likud Party in Israel is moving even further to the right. Increased Syrian-Israel tension is likely to be one outcome. A strengthened Hamas might well be another.

Iran is far from Israel/Palestine and has limited clients in that region. If it is forced out of the Levant, it will lose a talking point in domestic elections at most. Israel on the other hand is rather outnumbered by Egypt and Syria, both of them immediate neighbors.

Just when reports about the impending collapse of Assad’s regime had begun to make headlines, the Syrian regime has again demonstrated it’s resilience.

After weeks of fierce fighting, Assad’s tenacious forces have coerced the rebels to retreat from Deir Baalbeh district located in the strategically important city of Homs. Being the heartland of the uprising against Assad’s regime, Homs has been constantly bombarded with mortars, sniper bullets and mortar ever since February 2011, plunging the city into a humanitarian crisis. Media reports in February 2012 alleged that over 6000 people had been killed in Homs during the Arab Spring.
…
Lakhar Brahimi is right — it will be hell if a political solution to the 21-month long conflict in Syria does not materialise. And it’s the ordinary citizens that will bear the brunt of that hell.

Crisis and danger of war in the Middle East
The thing I am most afraid of in 2013 is the possibility of a war that might erupt nearby us.

The confusion in Syria will go on, but I don’t expect a military intervention from the U.S. It seems al-Assad will maintain his rule .

An armed conflict between Syria and Turkey, on the other hand, is not very probable unless a provocation is made. However, the number of refugees coming from Syria will rise, leading Turkey to face many difficulties.

The other two dangers are Iran and Iraq.

Iran’s nuclear program will reach its last stage in 2013. However, Israel allowing that is quite out of the question. It is very probable that Israel will shoot Iran’s nuclear plants either by itself or with the U.S., and this would be more than enough for a conflict in the region.

The only way to get out of this vicious cycle is a joint solution offered by the U.S. and Russia.

In case Iraq is divided into three, or the tension between the autonomous Kurdish administration in Northern Iraq and the central government in Baghdad turns into a war, the country that receives the most harm will be us.

To sum up, in 2013, our region could turn into a field of fire in any case.

Do you have a video of Moaz Al Khatiob talking directly to the Syrian refugees as he claims it in this letter ?

I hope you do. Nevertheless, the only videos that the media published show the ‘great’ Erdogan addressing people in Turkish and the people shouting واحد واحد while Moaz Al Khatib is only agitating his hand.
Were mobile phones and journalists forbidden, or Moaz is referring to Erdogan’s speech? Is it بدأت or بدأ ?

How to defend Bashar Assad in 10 easy steps
by Borzou Daragahi on Monday, December 31, 2012 at 11:34am ·

1. Keep mentioning Jubhat al Nasra and other Islamic jihadi groups without mentioning that the vast majority of armed groups are not nearly as extreme, are mostly locally based folks defending their towns and villages.

2. When referring to the armed opposition keep using the magic word: AL QAEDA

3. Make cursory mention of the regime’s brutality (you won’t have any credibility if you don’t) but avoid resurrecting the roots of the conflict in peaceful opposition to Bashar’s dictatorship. Avoid mention of wanton use of air power against civilians in bread lines and in their homes.

4. Keep talking about NATO, the Gulf countries and Western support for opposition; that will boost Bashar’s anti-imperialist creds among the campus leftists.

6. Frame Russia as an honest broker trying to peacefully resolve conflict instead of a shrewd chess player that doesn’t give a damn about Syrian civilians and murdered tens of thousands of Chechens in an attempt to put down a rebellion in the 1990s.

8. Keep raising rare instances of rebel misconduct and faked videos and frame them as emblematic of the overall opposition.

9. Make the opposition look intransigent; they’re the ones who won’t agree to a peaceful settlement, not the president who did no reforms for 10 years and dispatched shabiha to murder peaceful protesters when they spoke out.

10. Pray to God (even if you are an athiest) that the rebels don’t get to Damascus, open up the files and find out what you did for the regime, the details of conversations on how you got your visas and your access to officials.

“In the case of Syria, Moscow cannot be convinced that U.S. motives are driven purely by the humanitarian calamity that Assad created. Instead, the Kremlin sees sinister geopolitics at play, with Washington moving to get rid of a government whose foreign policy long contradicted U.S. interests, particularly by aligning with Iran. So when President Obama proclaimed on Aug. 18, 2011, that “the time has come for President Assad to step aside,” thus making regime change an official U.S. priority, the window for common ground with Russia at the U.N. closed. The fact that the texts of the proposed resolutions did not reflect that priority was irrelevant, given what Moscow saw as Washington’s now openly stated ultimate goal.”…

In 2013, these are 13 easy advices to defend the opposition’s legitimate and moral war against the ‘evil’ regime.

1. Keep mentioning ‘freedom and dignity’. Avoid totally the word Al Nusra and if you are asked, insist that it represents only a very small group that will vanish when the democratic and secular Coalition will take over.

2. When referring to the armed opposition keep using the magic word: Freedom fighters. When you refer to the Syrian army, use the magic word: Shabbihas.

3. Avoid mentioning the decapitation, the kidnapping and the looting in the 70% rebels ‘liberated’ areas. Insist that the car bombs are the work of the Syrian mokhabarat to discredit the freedom fighters.

4. Avoid mentioning Turkish borders where terrorists from Libya and other foreign countries are allowed free passage. Insist that salaries of the fighters is paid by honest Syrians and not by Qatar and KSA.
Also the weapons are all taken from the Syrian Army stocks. The opposition got nothing from non-syrian sources.

5. Don’t mention what happened to Ryad al Assad, Sheikh and other ‘high rank’ defectors? Just insist on the new ones.
Just say that Turkey and Qatar are not helping the opposition, just supporting it morally.

6. Focus on faults of the incompetent and brutal Syrian government compared to the impeccable organization of the FOS meetings in touristic resorts with 5 stars hotels.

7. Frame France and Qatar as honest brokers trying to peacefully resolve conflict instead of a shrewd chess player that doesn’t give a damn about Syrian civilians and murdered tens of thousands of Libyans as well as Qaddafi to get hold of the oil.

9. Keep raising rare instances of rebel misconduct and faked videos and frame them as exceptions in the overall noble opposition.

10. Make the government look intransigent; they’re the ones started it and who won’t agree to a peaceful settlement, not the Coalition who only put the moral condition of the removal of Bashar al Assad who killed 45,000 syrians.

11. Pray to God (even if you are an athiest) that the government does not stay and ask yourself what you did against the regime, the details of conversations on how you got your visas and your access to rebels and activists.

12. Keep reminding the “massacre” of Hama, that would make the Assad family look bad.

13. NEVER NEVER mention the Moslem Brotherhood. It will be plenty of time to talk about how good they are when they’ll lead the country.

The spread of extremism in Muslim societies in the past century can be attributed to a largely overlooked trend: the demise of religious institutions that once had global reach.

Moderate, diverse and transnational learning centres became localised and inward-looking because of momentous events such as the abolition of the caliphate system in Istanbul, the occupation of Jerusalem, the monopoly of Wahhabist ideology in Mecca and Madina, the dominance of the Khomeini doctrine in Qom and the weakening of the Najaf learning centre by Baathists and Khomeinists. These institutions have in many ways lost their religious global reach and yielded to provincialism.

Al Azhar University in Egypt, arguably the last bastion of pan-Islamic rationalism, appears to be facing a similar fate.
..
Al Azhar traditionally has been an antidote to fundamentalist and sectarian trends. For decades, “moderate Islam” was attributed to groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, but true moderation is represented by fundamentally rational institutions such as Al Azhar. The Muslim Brotherhood and its allies do not ascribe to an ideology that upholds moderation and rationalism.

The Brotherhood, for example, is essentially a strand of Salafism, which is pragmatic only in its tactics; its susceptibility to extremism, fundamentalism and sectarianism is clear. Many committed members of the Brotherhood hold extremist and sectarian views, and groups affiliated with it have endorsed violence as a political strategy.

Al Azhar, on the other hand, is a truly rationalist and moderate school. If extremist ideologies take over the institution, they are likely to tamper with its curriculum, which would have global implications: the Asharite school has played a significant role in curbing extremism in Islamic societies for centuries.

What makes the eclipse of Al Azhar a deeply worrying possibility is that it is part of a wider trend, along with the rise of religious extremists. Mecca and Madina used to be places where Muslims exercised tolerance and coexistence through tutoring circles that represented all schools of thought; they are now exclusively Wahhabi requiring strict compliance with that definition of pure Islam.

One simple advice to the regime supporters:
Make people forget that Assad was in power 11 years and had all the time in the world to make Syria a better place and advance democratic reforms. He did nothing for 11 years. All the fault is his. He had the power for 11 years. He could have done so many useful things. He did nothing but bring ruin on Syria.

What is happening in Syria is a direct result of Assad’s disastrous 11 years in power. When the opposition are 11 years in power and show no results then maybe they will be as responsible as Assad.

Assad in 11 years created a huge divide between the rich and poor in Syria while not making real democratic reforms, he strengthened jihadists by allowing them to freedom to operate in Syria and gave them money and he decided that it is smart to go against the West and the Gulf (and let’s add Turkey to the list). So, disastrous internal policies and disastrous foreign policies. No one but Assad to blame for them.

And of course the Islamist rise is the DIRECT fault of Assad.
1) He supported and funded jihadist groups when it suited him thus giving them legitimacy.
2) He did not allow Syrians to meet anywhere except in the mosques. How did he expect secular parties to rise?

By stopping any budding democratic or secular movement that could be seen as an alternative to him, he brought on the inevitable. The rise of Islamism. Stupid strategies lead to horrendous results and it is all Assad’s fault.

“I am quite sure that our victory is emminent at the beginning of the new year. Once Assad is gone, immediately the great relief and human rights organizations must enter the country in order to collect all data and figures: the refugees, prisoners, the dead and the disappeared. That’s the first thing we must address. Before, we can not rebuild our country. This must happen first. Otherwise I have no desire.

Except maybe a blanket. It’s now become very, very cold here, and we do not have enough blankets. At the moment I am hiding in the outskirts of Homs, but never staying long in one place. It’s too dangerous. I have hardly had time to sleep, because I’m always with the camera on the way to document the crimes of the regime. Often I make jokes in front of the camera, the videos are supposed to be funny. So it is with us Homsis, it is in our nature to be funny.

I want them all to see that this joy of life we have not lost. But the situation is tough. We are hungry, the internet is often very bad, mostly it is just enough to upload the videos.

I’m not very literate, I did not even go to a secondary school. Before the uprising, I worked in an electrical goods store. If, after the fall of the regime I have the chance, I’d love to do high school, maybe even study and work as a real journalist. Then I would watch our new government, because there should never again anyone be able to abuse his power in Syria.”

ABU JAAFAR, 31, is a citizen journalist and Youtube performers in Homs

“Syria is facing a difficult transition. All the sectarian conflicts that have been suppressed by the regime will only be solved with a lot of energy. Nevertheless, reconciliation is possible, but only if the new government can convince the individual groups, that the regime has depended on those conflicts – and that their disputes with one another is going nowhere.

I dream of a secular Syria, where all citizens have equal rights and obligations. I dream of a pluralistic democratic state, because only it guarantees equal rights for ethnic minorities.

I perceive myself as a Syrian Christian While not exactly a minority, because we come from this country. So we want to be equal partners, we will accept nothing else. It is our right to fight for our rights in the new Syria.” Hanadi *, Syrian Christian

————————————————–

“I want an Islamic state”

Unfortunately I can not do much at the moment. I am in Turkey to have to recover. Not that I’ve been hurt in the fight: I have brought ammunition to Deir Assur. This is not easy, because Assad’s troops have surrounded the city. Therefore, we have to walk, with the heavy boxes, often more than 20 kilometers. And I got myself stupidly sprained in my back.

I long that we can finally live in peace. This is of course until we have defeated Assad. What has to happen also is that everyone who was involved in the bloodshed, is brought to justice. That goes for both sides. But really only one side committed crimes: the regime. Sure, we execute prisoners, that is the law of the battlefield. What should we do otherwise? Are we supposed to serve our enemies a glass of wine?

What a country Syria will be in the future, should the Syrians decide. But why should we be not an Islamic state? What’s wrong with that? We’re Muslims, religion is important to us. I think if we are able to establish an Islamic state, we could be an example for the whole world. Because the Syrians are creative people, we would find a solution for every problem. AMER *, 25, a rebel fighter from Deir Assur

————————————————–

” We were dreamers”

Most of all I am longing to see my family.
I had to flee in the summer from Syria and now I live
in Houston, Texas. I am alone here, my parents and my
little sister are still in Damascus. When I will see them again
I dont know. Often I can not even reach them.
The whole situation is very difficult for me, because the situation in our neighborhood in Jaramana is very bad. Bombs detonate everywhere. My uncle has been recently arrested. but
My parents refuse to flee. What must happen in 2013?
Assad must disappear,and all weapons with him. the uprising is now really islamistic. I was from the start of the protests present.
I went to demonstrations and co-organized them, and therefore was in prison.

Today I wonder if this is still my rebellion, if this uprising is of all Syrians,whatever Religion they belong to.
When it all started, I had no doubts: Islamists in
Syria have no chance, I thought. I believed firmly that we can build up an new civil society. We were dreamers. Now for the first time in my life I am afraid as a Christian.

Sometimes I think in spite of everything,that our dream has still some value,that the Islamist tendencies are just a phase
which will pass. But in other moments I think that the World is really ugly an that our dreams are worthless.

The comments come as the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that Syria is preparing for, what he called, a sacred birth that will replace Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile Syrian Army troops have reportedly arrested four Turkish fighter jet pilots near a military airport in Syria’s northwestern province of Aleppo. Tensions have been running high between Syria and Turkey, with Damascus accusing Ankara — along with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, France, and the United States — of backing deadly militancy that has claimed the lives of many Syrians, including security and Army personnel.http://youtu.be/oPG9fZgjXTM?t=4m10s

2011, the Syrians have decided to overthrow their dictator, and they have started the revolution. They fight for dignity, human rights and a better country. Since then, they pay the highest possible price for this very simple request – every day.
Thousands have been murdured by the Assad regime. Now, when 2013 is coming, I desire that Assad and his gang would be arrested. They should be tried by a special national court. For I would not that Assad and his men end up like Gaddafi or the Yemeni President Saleh. All Syrians could follow the trial on television-just
as a World Cup. Furthermore, I hope that every single Syrians participates in the reconstruction of our country and that we all can bring up an civil society. And then, all my friends who were forced to leave our beautiful Syrien, can come back.
On that we are all together again to start projects that interest us. Just as in the beginning of the revolution. 2013, however,the new Syria will not emerge.The real revolution is indeed
still to come. What will come next year, is, I think, this: first of all all will fight against all, do similar things like Bashar al-Assad and his father, regardless of whether they are Islamists or atheists now.
But we have started a revolution to end any kind of dictatorship and to build up a civil society. For that we will fight to the end, until we manage to achieve that.

I hope that Assad will finally leave and Syria will be free.
However, I think the new year will continue like the old year.

The noise of the fighting stops no longer day and night we hear gunshots and explosions strike. In Daraa fighting is every day, Therefore, we need to stay at home. I havent worked now since more than a month. my office is only a kilometer away, but I can not reach it. I have four children, the youngest is ten months old, the oldest ten years. They dont go to school for quite some time
now.That makes me very unhappy. I try to teach them at home, but it is difficult, because our concentration is lacking. Most of them are just sitting around. They did not even play anymore, and if so, they play war. Sometimes I wish I could have some qietness just for a short while! I’d love to go for a walk once. But above all, I want this war to be over. I want to help rebuild our country again. I’m a civil engineer,for me, there will be a lot of work.

AHMED (NAME CHANGED), 42,
CIVIL ENGINEER, Daraa

——————————————————————-

” Still many will die”

I think at the end the insurgents will win. But I assume that in 2013 a lot more people will die. The regime is indeed continue to do everything,to survive. Apparently it has no other strategy,
survival is everything for Assad. Nevertheless, the rebels will conquer the coastal areas in the new year and arrest Bashar alive. I hope so much that he will be alive. Then they will finally conquer Damascus, and the Free Syrian Army will administer the state temporarily, so no chaos arises.
That’s about how it will come.
W., OPTICIAN IN ERBIN

——————————————————————-

“We need new pictures”

What needs to happen in 2013 is that we eliminate this regime and that each of us do something for the revolution, not only contribution to the rebels. It would be good if the whole world would be our partner in this triumph. Also, we artists have a role to play, the core of the Art is opening new, unfamiliar perspectives. Artists are urgently needed to voice criticism and also to make public what is currently happening in Syria I have been arrested in August and spent 22 days in jail.
Since then I stay in Cairo and try to support the revolution from here. Sure,as an artist I am thinking about the influence of Islamists. But what does that mean? Does that mean that I must be panicking? Does that mean I have to be an accomplice of repression?

For me it means that I must put myself on the street, next to the jihadists, and claim my space. If we go the distance and only criticize, then we are lost. We must get involved.
I wish to see more hope in the eyes of the Syrians in the new year. People should once again laugh wholeheartily again. I hope that we can take over our own cultural life and that we
can really take the initiative to create a new Syria, with
a new theater, new pictures and new literature.

Orwa NYRABIA, 35,
FILM PRODUCER, ACTOR
AND FOUNDER OF
INTERNATIONAL
DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL DOXBOX
FROM DAMASCUS, CURRENTLY IN CAIRO

The very concept of legitimacy is beyond the grasp of the regime.
What is the constitution saying about accountability separation of powers the rule of law and what does the reality of how the institutions are completely non functional

Since early 2011 the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has repeatedly called for the legitimate president of Syria – Bashar al-Assad – to surrender power and let a gang of al-Qaeda supporters known as the Syrian National Council (later Syrian National Coalition) replace him and destroy Syria. However, the repeated battlefield defeats of her “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) and their al-Qaeda Jihadi assistants have caused her much frustration, culminating in a blood clot behind her ear. She will be replaced this month by John Kerry.

Bashar’s regime is prototype illegitimate regime. He did not come to power via free election. He inherited it from Daddy. It is a well known fact and not admitting it affects your credibility tremendously.

After the disappearance of the successive FSA commanders Ryad El Assaad, Sheikh and other FSA heroes in a Turkish bunker, I am worrying about the HOMS hero: Abdel Razzak Tlass? After he was allegedly caught red-handed on a hot Skype conversation, he is not visible on Youtube.

….
In addition to all this there is hardly any indication to show that what will come out of Syria once Bashar al-Assad is toppled is democracy. The opposite is more likely. In the final analysis, deeds, not words, will show if Islam is compatible with democracy. So the answer to this question has yet to come.

But the indications are not encouraging for the Arab world, and worrying as far as Turkey is concerned.

Anti-Syrian anti-Assad members here: you have no credibility at all. Syria doesn’t need or want your kind.

You say nothing about the beheadings. The FSA rats have used CHILDREN to cut the heads off people and FILMED it for YouTube. What did they hope to gain other than attracting other sick people to go to war killing people?

You can’t be that deluded to believe Syrians would accept that? Don’t talk about sectarian things – most of the army is Sunni and is fighting the terrorists every single day.

Until I see or read a proof that Moaz al Khatib addressed directly the Syrian refugees in Sanli Urfa as he is claiming it in this greetings, I’ll stand by my impression that he is blatantly lying to hide his error and boost his own image. If it’s not a typing mistake, it’s impossible for anyone to trust such a leader.

I am in favor of elections without preconditions. Let the Syrians decide, not the USA or France or Qatar.

Before accepting elections, Al Khatib wants to eliminate his strongest opponent, Bashar al Assad as he knows that if Bashar is a candidate to election, the opposition and Al Khatib have no chance to win.

If he is so sure he’ll win, then he should put no pre-conditions. She should accept to negotiate a peace deal and ensure the coming elections are supervised.

I remembered your name. It was SS. So how was Damer’s ice cream? Is Batta afraid of earring Damer ice cream now lest he gets poisoned? What about Asma?

Ah. I almost feel bad for them. From going across the globe, walking freely in Paris and visiting South America, etc to not been able to taste ice cream or even worse Fatta or Shawrma. Divine justice I call it.. They can wear Prada but can’t eat …what a pity…

Al Khatib lied in writing his greetings. Read what he wrote and show me any media report that confirms it. Even Al Jazeera and al Arabya did not dare.
Are you putting the same standard on Bashar al Assad and an islamic preacher?

Elections will not be free when Assad is at the helm. It will be coerced. Atef Najeeb will be lurking at the corner. And ballot boxes will be changed to 98% in favor of Batta and stamped “Yes” with blood. Dictatorship never short on election. Do you not see that?!

Mr. Al Khatib will not be a president. His role is to lead an entity which will help establish a transitional government. Once the transitional government is established, this entity will dissolve itself and is no longer needed. The new government will oversee writing a new constitution and will oversee new free elections. I doubt Mr. khatib would want to run. He will most likely go back to his preaching.

This is the blueprint that is agreed on by almost all countries by now. The only remaining obstacles seem to be what role Assad will play, or not play, in the transitional government, whether or not he should be allowed to run for president, and if he will stay in the country.

Al Khatib has started on the wrong foot: He opposed and criticized the USA about Al Nusra, he rebuffed the Russia’s invitation, he made a pathetically silent first public appearance in front of Syrians in Turkey while Erdogan was vociferating against Bashar al Assad in turkish, he failed to establish a ‘military’ council to supervise the armed rebels, he failed to bring in the local Syrian opposition in his coalition etc…

AIG beat me to the point. How come If Batta is so confident of the election results, he never conducted free elections before? Please spare me the line that says ” he was too busy.”

Syria is a police state. Unless the security apparatus is dismantled, nothing “free” can happen. How many UN supervisors needed to ensure free election in a police state? 100k? And who guarantees the ramifications of saying no to Batta on the ballot? You vote no and escorted to the prison a day later..

His history is not that good. Suddenly these days he is talking in the name of Syrians.

His intellectual knowledge does not go beyond marriage certificates, helping people get rid of bad spirits (He is a Shaman of a sort), and giving the token sermons that always appeased the ruler, no matter how bad the situation is.

Syria has way better people. For example, he can not be compared to Burhan Ghaliun at any day. Syria has many Ghaliuns for sure. Let the people chose one of those. Let those who want to rule and speak in the name of Syrians write what he wants to do.

PS: happy new year to Prof. Landis for hosting this crazy bunch on his blog.

Happy new year to everyone here no matter what you think or believe in.

360 “This is the blueprint that is agreed on by almost all countries by now.”

HOPEFUL outside countries can’t impose their wishes on Syria. This goes against national sovereignty. Only Syrians can decide via a ballot box – once the rats have been eliminated we will hold elections and if Assad loses he will step down as all do in democratic societies. 😀

356 “I remembered your name. It was SS. So how was Damer’s ice cream? Is Batta afraid of earring Damer ice cream now lest he gets poisoned? What about Asma?”

TARA I’ve never been here before and don’t know any SS. As far as ice cream goes, I imagine they enjoy their favorite flavors like all of us do. I like vanilla best.

361 “Assad had 11 years to have free elections. If he was so sure he was going to win, why was he afraid to make democratic reforms?”

AIG Syria is far more democratic that any other Arab nation – 100s of times more democratic than any of the Gulf dictatorships that attempt to lecture Syria on democratic rights. Women in Syria enjoy far more rights than their counterparts in Saudi Arabia or Qatar. Syria will not allow am Islamic dictatorship – as in Egypt – to be forced on us by terrorists. It’s that simple.

This is not about Al Khatib. People are not dying by him and because of him. This is about Assad and the gang around him. The longer he hangs on to power, and the longer his supporters hang on to the delusion that Syria will fall apart without him, the longer Syrians will suffer. I am positive that Syria will produce not one or two, but ten candidates who would make you proud to have as presidents. Syria desperately needs to join the 21st century like the rest of the world. Enough!

11 years Assad had to allow free elections. Not 1 or 2 or 5. 11 years. Who cares about other countries? Why didn’t Assad during those 11 years make reforms that would lead to democratic elections?

You are not answering the question and it shows that even you do not believe that Assad is sincere about “free” elections. All he wants are elections he can manipulate. There is a huge difference between allowing democratic elections, which Assad did not allow for 11 years, and allowing Islamic dictatorship. In fact, if Assad had allowed free elections, the chances of an Islamic dictatorship would be much reduced.

AIG did not answer my question? How many UN supervisors needed in a police state to conduct free election? Who would guarantee that if I fly to Syria to vote no to Batta, I would not be arrested? Can the UN guarantee the well being of citizens when they vote no?

The more time Assad stays in power, the more jihadists will flock to Syria and the greater the chance for an Islamic mess.

What do you mean “Syria will not allow”? Assad does not control much of Syria. But please be my guest, fight to the death against the jihadists. You know they are looking forward to martyrdom, I hope you are too. The fact is that the Syrian elite has fled already. Those with money are in Beirut and elsewhere. You are probably outside of Syria also and do not plan to fight. You just encourage others to die for you. Good luck. But remember, the more this goes on, the more blood there is, the more chance that when Assad is gone, they will come for you in the diaspora. Being out of Syria will not help you.

Syria also agreed on this blueprint. Both the regime and the opposition did. The only stumbling block is Assad’s future.

What you are failing to see is the fact that people will not trust Assad to preside over free elections, especially if he is running. Would you blame them after 50 years of fake elections run by this regime? Or are you going to argue that those elections were honest and free?

Why not, for the sake of the country, have Mr. Assad step aside while free elections take place? Have we run out of people who qualify for the job? Why wouldn’t he make this sacrifice for the sake of the country?

370 “This is not about Al Khatib. People are not dying by him and because of him.”

HOPEFUL people are dying every single day in Syria because of Al Khatib: civilians, soldiers, police, the sick and starving are all dying because of this US puppet.

What planet are you on? Who wants your FSA NATO death squads in Syria? Not Syrians that’s for sure. If they did the SAA would put down their weapons and surrender instead of dying at the hand of Al Khatib US funded mercenaries.

PS – Bashar has not had 50 years of fake elections BTW. You can argue that Bashar needs to leave for ________ (fill in the blank) or be murdered but that won’t solve anything at all and all we will end up with is 100-200 thousand dead Syrians while the US-UK-France and their Israeli allies laugh.

PPS – Set up your candidate in Syria for 2014. If he wins Assad leaves, as he has said dozens of times. If he wins – he is president. Simple

And as for your property in Syria, well, you can forget about it already if Assad stays in power. Either Assad goes now and there will be some reconciliation, or he goes by force after bloody months or years, after which there is no reconciliation. You will have nothing left in Syria. So make the right choice. If you choose all or nothing, you will end with nothing. You can’t win, as the opposition have mostly nothing already.

+18 for men only
In this video that was found in one of the regime soldier’s phone in the city of Doma
The regime soldiers capture 2 men,and rather than kill them with Ak 47 they have on them, the take out knives and stabbed them over 70 times in a way to keep them alive ,then they carried large building bricks and throw it over their heads
This posting not to show the animalistic nature of the regime soldiers but to let them know through their friends and relative in this site that their faces have been shown and it is a matter of time to get captured, same like many others shabihas that have been coughthttp://youtu.be/X6HjDf9OC8Y

“… blind, hateful sectarianism, which is very damaging to this revolution and Syria as a whole. It is the opposite of what the Syrian people need and ask for, and in contradiction to their tradition and culture, not to mention our religion in general. The consequence of such a mentality becoming widespread in Syria is civil war, and if it will ever come to dominate the next government, another revolution could be expected sooner or later.

The Syrian regime is well aware of this, and considering that its only way to survive is through war and chaos, this sectarianism is their policy, it has been from the very beginning and only increased more and more” – Hamoudeh Al-Halabi

I do not have a candidate for 2014. What I care about is having truly free elections – ones that everyone in Syria believes in. This is the only way out of this mess, and this is an impossiblility under the current regime and current circumstances.

Frankly, I do not care if Assad runs, or even if he wins. What is important is a legitimate process that everyone believes in.

Tara
Parts of the video was shown today on aljazeera.You don’t really need to watch anymore, their beastly nature has been exposed to all Syrian long time ago,
I was not going post it,but Reve. Keep bringing up that beheading story by the kid who was taking revenge on the Shabih that killed all his family,so I wanted to show him the actions and deeds of his grown officers and soldiers wearing the his “SAA” uniform.
And for him and his likes to warn his buddies back home

It’s 2013 now, and Bashar Al Assad is still at the helm of the Syrian Arab Republic! Who would have predicted that? Certainly not the radical soonite insurgents and their cyber jihadi cheerleaders on here. What happened to all those boasts and predictions of imminent soonite victory? Whatever happened to Operation Damascus Volcano and Operation Zero Hour?

The Turks now have their Patriot Missiles to protect them, yet they still refuse to directly attack Syria? Instead the Turks invite the Israeli Air Force for joint NATO exercises. So much for the champion of the Pallie and Soonite causes.

Assad will not be able to run for election,because he is criminal, and because he will be dead long before election is held,
In a free election the majority of Syrian will not vote for him,he will get 10-12% vote, if you believe it is more,then allow free election under UN SUPERVISION,AND WE WILL SEE, WOULD YOU ACCEPT FREE ELECTION RESULTS ?
Assad is unable to walk through crowds to campaign, he will be shot dead
Zoo asked is Islam and democracy compatible? Look around you have Turkey , Egypt, and Iran, look at Tunis,the answer is clear yes.

Zoo if it is funny to hear people shouting Yal3an rouhak ya hafiz and ya bashar, you will have a lot of fun.

Wait, wasn’t Assad the champion of the Palestinian cause? So, he was lying to us all the time? Who would have expected the Rabbit of the Golan to also be a liar in addition to being a coward? Why didn’t Assad attack Israel in the Golan? Why is it the most quiet border? Why is the Syrian army being used just against its own people? Because Assad is a coward that has humiliated himself in front of all the Arab world. People are now seeing that all his brazen talk was pure nonsense, just to stay in power.

And just as he talked about Palestine and didn’t fire a shot against Israel, or talked about international law and human rights while torturing his own people, he now talks of democracy without meaning it.

A popular Egyptian political satirist is being investigated by prosecutors for allegedly insulting the president.

A formal complaint was brought against Bassem Youssef for “undermining the standing” of President Mohamed Morsi in his television show.

Separately, an independent newspaper says it has been accused by the presidency of “circulating false news” and is being investigated.

The cases come amid increasing worries about press freedoms in Egypt.

Many journalists have joined critics of the new Islamist-backed constitution, saying it does not offer enough guarantees of press freedoms.

Witty lampooning

Bassem Youssef is a doctor who shot to fame after winning a huge number of followers with his witty lampooning of public figures in amateur videos posted on the internet following the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s rule.

He became a household name when his satirical show – likened to Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show in the US – began to be broadcast three times a week on one of Egypt’s independent satellite stations.

He has poked fun at everyone from fellow television presenters to well-known Muslim scholars and most recently President Morsi himself, the BBC’s Shaimaa Khalil reports,

But sketches in which he portrayed Mr Morsi as a pharaoh, calling him “Super Morsi” for holding on to executive and legislative powers, and, separately, putting the president’s image on a pillow and parodying his speeches have angered one Islamist lawyer, whose formal complaint has resulted in the investigation.

Meanwhile, the independent al-Masry al-Youm newspaper said on Tuesday that Mr Morsi’s office has filed a complaint accusing it of “circulating false news likely to disturb public peace and public security and affect the administration”.

The paper said it related to an article in which “well-informed” sources were quoted as saying that Mr Morsi was due to visit the same hospital where Mr Mubarak is currently believed to be receiving treatment.

The story was subsequently updated to say that the visit had been cancelled and Mr Morsi’s wife visited a relative at the hospital, the newspaper said.

However, a reporter and editor have been summoned for questioning, the paper went on to say.

Egypt’s controversial new constitution, which became law last month, has sparked huge protests from opponents who say it favours Islamists and does not sufficiently protect the rights of women or Christians as well as press freedoms.

Now it’s a crime to criticize and mock the Ikhwani dictator! This is the “democracy” the soonites have brought to Egypt! As you can see from this board soonites won’t tolerate criticism of their new caliph Moaz (who is an ikwani)!

Radwan Ziadeh, in his facebook,has two videos show Assad Thugs slaughtering Sunni in a very ugly disgusting way stabbing them to death and while they are dying throwing over them large huge piece of stone, this is to show the criminality of this group and we can not live with them anymore,large number of them must get punished by death,this community are murderers,they can not be rehabitated,clean Syria from them is a must.

If we don’t rid the world of those evil people,Assad thugs,we will live to regret that,it is for the safty of our children and future generation,we must punish them for their evil deeds, they are the worst human ever created,justice is not hate, not all alawis are bad, some sunnis are bad,those I call Assad thugs are both Alawis and sunnis helping Assad.
Justice is not hate, even if they are related to us,they must be punished